Picking winners?
OPINION: Every time politicians come up with an investment scheme where they're going to have a crack at 'picking winners' with our money, the Hound cringes.
OPINION: Your canine crusader reckons the recent immigration reset by the Government, restricting the inflow of 'low-skilled' migrant workers into the country, is not only myopic and ideological but also poorly thought-out policy.
The union powerbrokers - who run and control the Labour Party - mistakenly believe that turning off the tap to 'low-skilled' migrants will see all the vacant jobs in the horticulture, farming and other sectors suddenly filled by hordes of 'hard working' unemployed Kiwis.
That is fanciful.
One only has to look at the evidence from last year, when Covid closed our borders, and the number of unharvested apples, kiwifruit and grapes that were left to rot, and the rural contractors who could not get tractor drivers.
Those with the mistaken belief that all migrant workers coming to NZ to work on farms are 'low-skilled' should take a good look at this year's NZ Dairy Industry Awards winners!
Farmer interest continues to grow as a Massey University research project to determine the benefits or otherwise of the self-shedding Wiltshire sheep is underway. The project is five years in and has two more years to go. It was done mainly in the light of low wool prices and the cost of shearing. Peter Burke recently went along to the annual field day held Massey's Riverside farm in the Wairarapa.
Applications are now open for the 2026 NZI Rural Women Business Awards, set to be held at Parliament on 23 July.
Ravensdown has announced a collaboration with Kiwi icon, Footrot Flats in an effort to bring humour, heart, and connection to the forefront of the farming sector.
Forest & Bird's Kiwi Conservation Club is inviting New Zealanders of all ages to embrace the outdoors with its Summer Adventure Challenges.
Grace Su, a recent optometry graduate from the University of Auckland, is moving to Tauranga to start work in a practice where she worked while participating in the university's Rural Health Interprofessional Programme (RHIP).
Two farmers and two farming companies were recently convicted and fined a total of $108,000 for environmental offending.

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