Damien O’Connor: NZ united on global trade
When it comes to international trade, politicians from all sides of the aisle are united, says Labour's trade spokesman Damien O'Connor.
The Hound reckons West Coast MP and Labour’s primary industries spokesman Damian O’Connor made a complete idiot of himself over his ‘support’ during the recent Anzac rugby league test.
O’Connor posted on Twitter what an ‘amazing performance’ it was from the Kiwi team – but unfortunately for him this before the game had been played. Trouble for O’Connor was he’d been travelling on the night the test was to be played, but it had been postponed for 48 hours because of flooding in Brisbane. So when the hapless MP sat down to watch the game ‘live’ his cheerleading was for a test that was played six months before. The good news is the Kiwis did win the match when it was played two days later; the bad news is this did not stop O’Connor from looking like a real plonker.
Last month's Agritechnica event led to a wide group of manufacturers celebrating successes when the 2026 Tractor of the Year Competition winners, selected by a panel of European journalists, were announced in Hanover Germany.
According to the latest Federated Farmers banking survey, farmers are more satisfied with their bank and less under pressure, however, the sector is well short of confidence levels seen last decade.
Farmer confidence has taken a slight dip according to the final Rabobank rural confidence survey for the year.
Former Agriculture Minister and Otaki farmer Nathan Guy has been appointed New Zealand’s Special Agricultural Trade Envoy (SATE).
Alliance Group has commissioned a new heat pump system at its Mataura processing plant in Southland.
Fonterra has slashed another 50c off its milk price forecast as global milk flows shows no sign of easing.

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