Taking the lead
By Andrew Olsen, CEO of Rural Contractors NZ
By the time you are reading this, hundreds of rural contractors from around the country will have met in four free regional roadshows. RCNZ has built good reserves over the years aided now by an expanding partner network. They support us financially and get the prime spots at the roadshows and conference to engage with our members. It’s an absolute win-win.
Speaking of wins, Rural Contractors NZ has had a few of late. Some of the credit for that goes to the current Government. When we knock on the Beehive door we tend to more often than not get a quick response. Even if there is no immediate fix, there’s mostly a commitment to try and sort out the issues which make it harder for rural contractors to continue doing what they do to keep farms and farmers viable.
For example, we approached Immigration Minister Erica Stanford on taking office nearly 18 months ago about the difficulty our members often face in trying to bring in skilled seasonal machinery operators. Hon. Erica couldn’t fix it immediately but she talked directly to us and made some interim adjustments which have helped. We are now also enroute to a policy change which will give surer footing to RCNZ members who require skilled operators from overseas.
Transport continues to be of significant interest to RCNZ. We have a seat on the Minister-endorsed Road Transport Policy Group where we continue to debate the difference between agriculture machines and other commercial road users. The current settings for permitting overweight Ag machines is way too complex, riddled with red tape and now in front of the Minister for Regulation David Seymour. He saw an RCNZ delegation within 3 weeks and we agreed this supportive statement about the permitting complexities facing heavy agricultural vehicles. The Minister understood the problem statement and was of the view there was an opportunity to remove red tape and create a national standard. He has referred the matter to his officials at the Ministry who will engage with other agencies to start discussion on alternate permitting and/ or exemption options.
Our roadshow keynote speaker was WorkSafe. We all support a safe workplace but members expressed a high level of anxiety when it came to a depot visit from the regulator. We pointed out that engaging with industry was now the agency’s priority and we advocated it work with us on through the roadshows on ways to make it clear to the business what was required to be prepared for a WorkSafe visit. The result was a comprehensive presentation on being better prepared for a visit and for maintaining a safe workplace. The presentations will be available on the RCNZ website for members.
Now in winter we’ve had our four roadshows and we get ready for spring. If you’re not a member and want to be part of this vibrant group of good buggers please get in touch or apply via the RCNZ website.