Tuesday, 01 December 2020 09:53

Action, please!

Written by The Hound

font size decrease font size increase font size
Print
Email

The Hound notes that despite the new government having been elected for well over a month, there seems to a real lack of urgency on its behalf.

A clear case in point is the stone-walling and delay – from both government ministers and officials – over the desperate need to allow more migrant workers into the country to harvest fruit and vegetables.

Meanwhile, the Shearing Contractors Association is still looking for an urgent decision to allow experienced sheep shearers into the country – despite having been in talks with the government since the start of lockdown.

The association says, initially, it applied for 200 shearers to fill gaps in the local workforce, but that has been scaled back to 60 – but they are still waiting for a decision.

Perhaps they should have said the shearers were movie industry workers or America’s Cup sailors and they would have had more luck!

More like this

True Reflection?

A fair question has been raised about how member-funded organisations should conduct themselves when taking a public position on any given issue.

Stuffed!

The canine crusader always has his nose in the air for more media maleficence, so was pointing as soon as he saw the Stuff headline: ‘Wellington residents respond to PM saying he doesn’t need his job!’.

Civil Circus!

OPINION: It really is getting harder to lampoon government bureaucrats when they do such a good job of it themselves.

Anyone in the primary sector will know about the clowns covering the countryside in the red tape we all have to wade through.

Spare a thought then for media outfit Stuff who were threatened with fines up to $200,000 by a snivelling civil servant from the MoH for illustrating a quiz question with a photo of part of the cover of a 45-year-old copy Playboy.

As Stuff notes, “It wasn’t the Playboy cover which caused offence. No, it was the back page which… featured an advert for a cigarette brand”.

As Regulations Minister David Seymour notes, “The real scandal here is, well, no wonder we’ve got problems in healthcare when they’re doing the Stuff quiz during work time.”

Ewe Zealand First

OPINION: After all the criticism that Winston Peters leveled at the India/NZ FTA, it seemed just a trifle ironic to the Hound that the first NZ politician to visit India after Prime Minister Modi's visit was a member of the Ewe Zealand First party.

Smith V Fonterra

OPINION: To a chorus of crying greenies, and not a minute too soon, the Government has moved to put the courts back in their place through proposed amendments to the Climate Change Response Act 2002, intending to limit climate litigation claims such as Smith v Fonterra, in the interests of providing greater certainty for vital industry.

Featured

Te Pari Acquires NZ Sheep Handler Brand Combi Clamp

Oamaru-based livestock handling specialist Te Pari has bought Combi Clamp, the New Zealand manufacturer of Combi Clamp manual sheep handlers.

RSE Scheme Changes Coming - McClay

Agriculture Minister Todd McClay has admitted that a scheme bringing workers from Pacific nations to work on orchards has become too hard to navigate but says changes are coming.

New App StockScore Digitises Livestock Condition Scoring

A new app designed in New Zealand aims to help sheep, beef and deer farmers capture, analyse and use body condition score data more effectively.

Andy Macfarlane Joins AgriZeroNZ Board

Canterbury farmer Andy Macfarlane has been appointed to the board of AgriZeroNZ, the public-private partnership designed to accelerate the development and deployment of emissions reduction tools for New Zealand farmers.