Posted: October 3, 2025

I was asked a few questions from the New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers

New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Incorporated (NZKGI) works to advocate, protect and enhance the commercial and political interests of New Zealand kiwifruit growers. Kiwifruit is New Zealand’s largest horticultural export and growing.

Normally I'm not afraid to say I don't know, I'll find out rather than blustering something. However, in this strange campaign mode, I'm trying to show how my values and competence can be applied to x, y, z. So here we go...

To help kiwifruit growers "make informed choices about their interests in the local body elections", we were asked to complete a short survey. My answers to their questions are now published on their website↗, alongside the responses from others↗.

For ease of reading, I've included my answers here too.

What drives you to run as a candidate in the local body elections? What do you hope to achieve?

Median incomes are flat against a rising cost of living, meaning life is getting persistently tougher for most families. Even for those who think they're doing OK, they're seeing services and the fundamental standard of living for those they care about getting worse.

Successive central governments don't appear to be doing much to change the settings so let's just get on with it ourselves.

I'm standing for restoring that sense of wider abundance we once had out here, one built on a deep sense of place and good quality of life for ordinary workers.

I believe we can live rich lives out here as we support our productive primary industries into self-sufficiency and move up the value chain.

Sure, you can go and work in the mines in Western Australia and earn the big bucks, but you'll soon come back and give back because it's a bloody good life out here.

Such a direction will give piece of mind to our elderly by giving hope and purpose to our rangatahi.

How will you support the kiwifruit industry?

I don't have a background in horticulture (apart from summer jobs), but I have had a fruitful professional career in high- and low-tech solutions in incredibly challenging markets.

It will be technology solutions - that cleverly and pragmatically address our needs - that move us up the value chain. An ideal scenario becomes home-grown horticultural technology - proven on our fields - and licensed at high margins.

However, right now we are short of visible pathways from secondary to vocational education and into the high-skilled practical work needed to make these creative transformations possible.

While I admit, it's a longer-term play, as a councillor I will use my background to support a locally-focused, joined-up strategy for education connected to useful high-skilled work in our productive primary industries.

What will you do to support the development of seasonal worker housing, especially in rural areas?

More broadly, my goal is for the council to be a conscientious enabler, with an increased risk appetite, while ensuring negative externalities are not passed on to the public.

For example, seasonal worker housing - cabins and ablution blocks - if not supported already, can just be at the standard we accept and enjoy in campgrounds. And if the accommodation can be self-sufficient - e.g. solar power, water tanks, composting toilets - it should be incentivised through consenting.

I do often think that our regional wealth holders can take the lead and develop substantial worker and student accommodation because of the long-term return on investment for the region. The council should encourage this, but it's not in a position to fund it.

How will you ensure kiwifruit growers have reliable access to water, and how will you balance competing demands?

The particulars of irrigation and water storage across the flats is not an area where I have a strong enough understanding to form an opinion yet. However, as I've done throughout my career, I'll go all-in to understand the problem by taking on the advice of the key stakeholders, experts, and (hopefully) fellow councillors who have this experience.

From a regional wealth perspective I lean toward pro-productive industries, so long as it's not at the expense of the wellbeing of the public. And, accepting environmental constraints does spur new, valuable innovations.

What is your stance on protecting productive horticultural land from urban sprawl and subdivision?

I strongly support intensification and in-fill housing within city limits. Where suitable residential infrastructure already exists, development should be incentivised in preference of sprawling greenfield developments where it does not. This preserves our valuable productive horticultural land while making our city more vibrant, walkable, and community-minded.

How will you improve rural road infrastructure to support the movement of produce?

As one of the largest territorial authorities in the country with 1900km of roads and about 1% of the population, this is a near insurmountable problem to solve on our own ratepayer base.

Still, I believe a positive change would be to establish something like a CCO with in-house expertise. Such an organisation would be required to have a procurement preference for direct agreements with local contractors, i.e., the people who have strong relationships and expectations in their communities.

While some might be aghast at the idea of something approaching a local Ministry of Works, in hindsight, being responsible for getting on with it and doing the work ourselves doesn't seem so bad.

What policies will you support to help growers adapt to climate change impacts?

The cost of inputs and more volatile weather are what I see as the most pressing challenges for growers, both of which are related to the impacts of climate change. Whether it's the cost of insurance, the cost of crop loss, the cost of land use change, or the cost of fuel and electricity, the changing climate is hurting economically.

However, I believe like any set of constraints, climate change also brings about new thinking and opportunities.

For example, with NZ's broken energy market and central governments unwilling to fix it, there is an opportunity for our regional wealth holders, supported by council, to ramp-up their investment in electricity and communications self-sufficiency in our region. And there is also the opportunity for businesses themselves to continue the shift to electrification.

Reducing our reliance on market forces out of our control not only reduces major input costs in the long term, it makes us more capable of looking after ourselves when the next major weather event strikes.