Wednesday, 22 September 2021 14:30

Who?

Written by The Hound

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OPINION: The refusal of both Damien O'Connor and PM Jacinda Ardern to release some of the correspondence they received about Groundswell begs a question or two.

Who was this correspondence and why are the Government protecting them?

Your canine crusader suggests the Government - and especially O'Connor - has had a long, tetchy relationship with Feds and would have been happy to throw them under the bus for political gain.

According to a mate of yours truly, he reckons this correspondence will be from either Beef + Lamb and DairyNZ, or the Food and Fibre Partnership Group.

Funny this is that, at present, Groundswell seems more in touch with rural concerns than any of those three groups who are about as popular in farming circles as Ron Brierley would be at a kindergarten picnic!

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New Mates

OPINION: Proponents of regenerative agriculture tend to be naturally aligned with a 'green mindset', so they will be nonplussed with their new mates in the US of A.

Levy Scrutiny

OPINION: Mike Chapman, former chief executive of levy-funded HortNZ, has thrown out a challenge to farmers and growers to put their levy-funded industry organisations under the same scrutiny as fertiliser, electricity, labour and freight.

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.”

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