New Zealand Listener Issue 30, 2022

Farmers are among the most innovative, resourceful, and resilient business operators in New Zealand. Many have already been making good progress towards understanding and reducing the environmental impact of agriculture. In the summers of 1977 and 1978, I made hay and pressed wool at Hill End, out of Balclutha, on my uncle’s farm. It was hard, satisfying work, with good people who wanted to do the right thing for the land, their animals, their families, the community and the country. Now, climate change is adding further challenges to agriculture in New Zealand. The slower we are at reducing emissions, the greater the burden will become in responding to climate and consumers. We must reduce gross green-house gas emissions, and we cannot plant our way out of our commitments. Parliament unanimously set a January…

WINNING CAPTION Mike Hamblyn, Dunedin FINALISTS Boris Johnson: “I can’t recall inviting Kelsey Grammer.” – Mike Lynch, Upper Hutt Johnson: “I’m having another bad hair day. Nothing’s going right.” – Hans Zindel, Palmerston North Johnson: “Things are getting a bit sticky at home. Carrie is going to be pretty upset if they kick us out of the big house.” – Bronwen Gunn, Levin Olaf Scholz: “So, it turns out the party vote is more important than the Let’s Party vote!” – Steve Godsiff, Timaru Johnson, thinking: “OMG, did I really ask where Angela was?” Bronwen Gunn, Levin Scholz: “That’s the trouble with smoke and mirrors, Boris. The smoke gets in your eyes.” – Paul Kelly, Palmerston North Caption Competition {listenercaption@aremedia.co.nz} TO ENTER Send your captions for the photo at right to listenercaption@aremedia.co.nz, with “Caption Competition No 470” in the subject line.…

Name Withheld (Letters, July 16) says there was no Winz in the 1960s. It wasn’t called Winz, but it existed: on April 1, 1939, the Social Security Department was established. We do not all “have loads of kids”. Some beneficiaries have none. My brother is on Supported Living and gets $359 a week. So do I now, after a long IT career. I had no choice; first I was my partner’s carer, now I am my aged mum and brother’s carer. I’d love to earn even the minimum wage, but no, I get the $359, too, now. Just as well – we sure couldn’t do it without all our incomes. I established fruit and vege patches and we mostly live off the garden. I make “nutritious meals”. However, you can’t grow toilet paper,…

“Do what you love and you’ll never own property a day in your life.”– Seen on Twitter“Everything is dishwasher safe if you don’t care enough about it.”– Seen on Twitter“People only see what they are prepared to see.”– Ralph Waldo Emerson“A lot of people don’t have very high expectations of young people. I don’t think we suddenly become capable of things because of our age.”– Leila Mottley, author of Nightcrawling“It’s a great time to be doing political satire when the world is on a knife edge.”– John Oliver“Education is the progressive discovery of our own ignorance.”– Will Durrant“That’s the fun of television. You can find an actor and they’ll inspire you to change and evolve a character in a way you hadn’t initially planned on.”– Matt Duffer, co-creator of Stranger…

1. Fiji is considered to be a part of which of these regions? ❑ Macaronesia❑ Polynesia❑ Micronesia❑ Melanesia 2. True or false? The terms “gnu” and “wildebeest” refer to the same animals. ❑ True❑ False 3. What is pictured on the reverse (or tails) side of a New Zealand 20 cent coin? ❑ Fern leaf❑ Māori carving❑ Tuatara❑ Kōwhai flowers 4. Who is the current Secretary General of Nato? ❑ Charles Michel❑ Ursula von der Leyen❑ Jens Stoltenberg❑ Joe Biden 5. Gorgonzola is a veined blue cheese that is made from the unskimmed milk of which animal? ❑ Cow❑ Water buffalo❑ Goat❑ Sheep 6. The mostly instrumental 1973 album Tubular Bells, by Mike Oldfield, is well known for its use in which film? ❑ The Big Chill❑ Dirty Dancing❑ The Exorcist❑ Pulp Fiction 7. Which of these is a term for a…

As Sydney shivered through flooding this month, Jacinda Ardern was a sunny presence amid the grey days alongside her grim-faced counterpart, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. While he waded the city’s lake-like north, enduring tirades from people forced out of homes for the fourth time in two years, the New Zealand Prime Minister – morepopular in Australia, it seems, than Aotearoa – was feted by Sydney fashionistas, scored a prime-time television interview with the national broadcaster and was rhapsodised in the Australian and Sydney Morning Herald. Her visit culminated in a joint press conference with Albanese, where he offered Ardern all that she wanted – and more – for the 650,000 New Zealanders across the Tasman. Australia, he said, finally recognises that New Zealand-born criminals with little connection to their birthplace should…