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.
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!
Fears of a serious early drought in Hawke’s Bay have been allayed – for the moment at least.
There was much theatre in the Beehive before the Government's new Resource Management Act (RMA) reform bills were introduced into Parliament last week.
The government has unveiled yet another move which it claims will unlock the potential of the country’s cities and region.
The government is hailing the news that food and fibre exports are predicted to reach a record $62 billion in the next year.
The final Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction has delivered bad news for dairy farmers.
One person intimately involved in the new legislation to replace the Resource Management Act (RMA) is the outgoing chief executive of the Ministry for the Environment, James Palmer, who's also worked in local government.

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