Disunity is death
OPINION: Staying with politics, with less than nine months to go before the general elections, there’s confusion in the Labour Party when it comes to working with the divided Maori Party.
OPINION: Your old mate was a little confused by Maori Party MP Rawiri Waititi’s stance over not wanting to wear a tie in Parliament’s debating chamber.
Waititi was booted out of Parliament on the first day back this month, after a dress code scuffle with Speaker Trevor Mallard.
As he was leaving the house, after being ejected by Mallard, Waititi said: “This is not about ties, it is about cultural identity.”
The Hound suggests Waititi may very well have had a valid point about the archaic rule around wearing neck ties in Parliament, which has now been relaxed.
However, he suggests if Maori Party co-leader is going to pull the old ‘cultural identity’ claim then he’d probably have more truck and ‘mana’ if he were not wearing his omnipresent, ridiculous-looking cowboy hat, which is hardly traditional Maori garb!
Associate Agriculture Minister Mark Patterson says his party – NZ First - isn’t opposed to the “trade element” of a free trade deal with India.
The managing director of a company seeking to build a solar farm in Canterbury says receiving fast-track approval is a “really positive outcome”.
Retiring MP and dairy farmer Mark Cameron is blasting the Green Party for proposing to ban the use of synthetic fertiliser and cutting cow numbers.
A huge reduction in ACC claims from on-farm accidents over the last five years is due to thousands of small, practical decisions being made in sheds, yards, paddocks and around kitchen tables across the country, says Safer Farms ambassador Lindy Nelson.
Wayne and Ange Moxham of Horowhenua have just been named as Fonterra's top organic performer for milksolids. As well as providing organic milk to Fonterra, the couple also sell Udderly Organic milk to more than 100 outlets in the region and are embarking on another exciting venture producing organic gelato. Reporter Peter Burke went along to see their farming operation.
Certainty and a clear understanding of the needs of rural communities is a critical outcome in the series of government reforms that are taking place at present.

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