Thursday, 27 October 2022 10:00

Conflicted?

Written by The Hound

font size decrease font size increase font size

OPINION: Your canine crusader understands there is a bit of rumbling around the traps over the perceived conflict of interest at Fed Farmers' meat wool section.

Chair William Beetham took over the role as Fed's meat and wool prime advocate back in August 2020.

However, during this time, he's also picked up a directorship at meat co-op Silver Fern Farms in May this year.

So, with his Feds hat on, Beetham is part of the farmer lobby's stern criticism of the Government's recent proposal for pricing farmers for emissions.

However, with his SFF hat on, Beetham is part of a meat company that fully endorses the Government's move to tax farmers for on-farm GHGs, where SFF directors and executives cuddle up to the PM on overseas trips and back her government's farm emissions plans.

The question is, where do Beetham's loyalties lie - with Feds or SFF?

More like this

Federated Farmers slams select committee’s carbon forestry ban recommendations

Federated Farmers says a report to Parliament on the subject of a ban on carbon forestry does not go far enough to prevent continued farm to forestry conversions.

Wrong focus

OPINION: Your old mate reckons townie Brooke van Velden, the Minister of Workplace (or is it Woke Place) Relations is now showing how underemployed she is as a minister by initiating an investigation into whether young children should be banned from collecting eggs on farms and feeding animals.

Burn the village

OPINION: There's an infamous term coined by a US general during the Vietnam war, specifically in reference to the battle of Ben Tre: "We had to burn the village to save it."

Purist problem

OPINION: The sudden departure of Jim Ward, manager of Molesworth Station for 24 years, highlighted some major dysfunction in the way conservation estate is managed in this country - the biggest problem, as the Hound sees it, being idealogues who harp on about "taonga" and use all means possible to block sensible commercial operations on conservation land.

Drill baby, drill!

OPINION: While the destruction of NZ's oil and gas industry by Jacinda Ardern's band of merry vandals was virtue signalling on a heroic scale - producing no environmental benefit whatsoever - the politician vowing to make that industry whole again, Shane Jones, is not above a bit of virtue signalling of his own.