Gumboots and announcements at Fieldays
Just some of the stalls and hubs on display at Fieldays on Wednesday.
Photo:
Monique Steele
Today is the last day of largest agricultural event in the Southern Hemisphere.
From gumboots to tractors to camo, Fieldays has had it all - including multiple government announcements and political parties of all stripes.
Thousands of people have made it to the event, including Federated Farmers national president Wayne Langford who talks to Susie.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Regulatory Standards Bill will stop lawmakers considering broader public health, warns cancer specialist
The Bill is part of ACT Party leader David Seymour's coalition agreement. Photo: RNZ Graphic / Nik Dirga The Regulatory Standards Bill will stop lawmakers from taking broader public health considerations into account, warns a leading cancer specialist. ACT Party leader David Seymour said the Bill - part of its coalition agreement with the National Party and New Zealand First - was about requiring governments to be more "transparent" about the financial impact of legislation. However, Auckland University associate professor George Laking, a medical oncologist and clinical Māori director in the Centre for Cancer Research, said the real intent seemed to make economic factors the only measure. "We already have transparency around lawmaking - that's why we have regulatory impact reports," he said. "This seems more like an attempt to narrow the frame for what's considered to count as being relevant in that type of decision." He joined other public health and legal experts, who have criticised the bill (in its current form) as allowing tobacco, alcohol industries or environmental polluters to seek compensation, if future legislation costs them profit. Associate professor George Laking from Auckland University. Photo: Supplied "You wouldn't want your surgeon to operate with a blunt instrument, but that's exactly the approach the Regulatory Standards Bill takes to the health needs of our society," Laking said. "I acknowledge ACT's faith in market-based solutions, but it is well known that markets fail. That's why the government should be very careful about market deregulation, when human health is at stake." The Bill also appeared to be a covert attack on the principles and articles of te Tiriti o Waitangi, he said. "The situation we have is quite inequitable in terms of distribution of wealth and power in society, and that's a big reason why government needs to be able to take into account a wider set of principles, than rather just the narrow, market-based, productivity-based ones that ACT likes to focus on. "The definition of 'liberty' begs the question of whose liberty - the ability to pollute the environment, to get people hooked on addictive substances, that's one side of the liberty coin. "The pursuit of short term economic gain is not necessarily the recipe for an harmonious society." Public submissions on the Regulatory Standards Bill close at 1pm Monday, 23 June 2025. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
3 hours ago
- RNZ News
Youth-led Hīkoi highlights Auckland homelessness crisis says advocate
About 100 people marched on the footpath from Karangahape Road to downtown Auckland. Photo: Kick Back / Aaron Hendry A youth advocate says the turnout at a hīkoi to highlight youth homelessness in Auckland CBD clearly shows the pain and trauma young people are experiencing. Co-founder and manager of youth development organisation Kick Back, Aaron Hendry, said about 100 people marched on the footpath from Karangahape Road to downtown Auckland after noon Saturday. He said the hīkoi was organised by youth who had or still experienced homelessness. "Many young people in our community have been denied emergency housing, are couch surfing, living in hostels and in unsafe living environments, because this government and successive governments have not invested in a clear strategy to end youth homelessness. "This is them standing up and saying, 'We have a voice, we are going to use it'." Kick Back was actively monitoring 140 young people in the city, who do not have stable housing - some as young as 11 years old. Hendry said marching on the footpath instead of the road was a way of recognising where many had slept rough. "Young people denied shelter because of government decisions around emergency housing had to sleep on Karangahape Road or Queen Street. Youth protestors wave flags during a hīkoi to highlight youth homelessness in Auckland CBD. Photo: Kick Back / Aaron Hendry "They are taking the street back and saying, 'This is where you left us, this is not a place for any child or young person to live'." He said Labour MPs Shanan Halbert and Kieran McAnulty, and Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March participated in the march. Auckland councillor and mayoral candidate Kerrin Leoni also attended. "Central government have taken quite a lot of money away from homeless initiatives and it is a real concern for our city," Leoni said. "There are multiple issues young homeless people are experiencing and hearing a story of a suicide today is heart-breaking, as a leader of this city, to know this is happening in the wealthiest and biggest city of our country. She said, if elected mayor, she would work with community housing and poverty action groups to find ways Auckland Council could help. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
11 hours ago
- RNZ News
Legal action over changes to resource teaching roles 'possible'
Education Minister Erica Stanford. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone The country's largest teaching union is considering legal action against the government's decision to cut resource teachers in primary schools, confirmed last month as part of the Budget. Ministry of Education documents from February show that 84 schools employed resource teachers for literacy support, 40 employed resource teachers for Māori and three schools employed both. Nationally, there are a maximum of 121 full-time positions for Resource Teachers of Literacy (RTL) and 53 for Resource Teachers of Māori (RTM). Minister for Education Erica Stanford said that was a small number of teachers for the country's 2000 primary schools, and, during a consultation process in March , schools had told her the current system was "not equitable". Stanford said funding was now in place for 349 structured literacy teachers, who would provide support within classrooms - rather than driving from school to school as was the case under the current system - and she encouraged literacy resource teachers "who are amazingly well-qualified and passionate people" to consider applying for those roles. NZEI national secretary Stephanie Mills said the union was waiting on more information from Stanford about how she came to the decision, and then it would decide next steps. "We've said from the beginning of the consultation process that we will explore all options to keep those resources intact. It's not about getting rid of a certain number of positions, it's a service that's been built up over time." Mills said NZEI had requested details about how Stanford reached her decision via an official information request. The union had asked to see the consultation document prior to the announcement and was told that would be provided a fortnight in advance, but confirmation the roles would be defunded came as part of the Budget. Teachers felt "really disrepected and gaslit" as a result, she added. "These teachers are some of our most experienced and skilled, and they're not being treated in a good way." Mills said many of the current resource teachers were working in rural places and she feared those schools would no longer get the same support. "It will be quite a different role in the new system. The [same] service won't exist and the jobs won't exist." Mills said it was an "irony" the literacy resource roles were being cut, "when the government wants structured literacy". Meanwhile RTMs were, in many situations, the only frontline support for kaiako and tamariki Māori. " Māori RTs are like a taonga ." Stanford said she would not be commenting on what action the resource teachers might take. The move was about schools and students, not the teachers, she said. "It's about the way we deliver the service, and this advice was given to me by the sector itself, by schools saying 'the way the model is being delivered it's not equitable and many schools are missing out' ... The ones who are getting the service may not have the greatest need, so it's very inequitable. "What we are doing is shifting that model to an in-class delivery - small groups, intervention teachers, in school." Stanford said the NZ Resource Teachers Literary Association had had "clear information and met multiple times with ministry officials" and they had been "very clear about the reasons, about the opportunities for them in other roles, and they've met a number of times and they have been given that information". The move was not a cut but a "reinvestment", Stanford insisted. "We've already resourced 349 Tier 2 structured literacy intervention roles, over and above the 100 literacy positions that there currently are, so it is not a cut, it is a reinvestment into a better delivery model." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
