E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā iwi, tēnā koutou katoa.
It’s wonderful to be here at an event that brings our sector together. Even if a collaboration means twice as many speeches.
As the Country Calendar reel reminded us, our sector is broad and has transformed dramatically over the past 60 years. From bulldozers and burn-offs to modern technology, but some things remain - the critical role of the farming family and the support of mans best friend plays.
I’d like to acknowledge our shareholding ministers — Minister Willis, Minister Brown, and Associate Minister of Agriculture Mark Patterson, who holds the delegation for Landcorp, aka Pāmu. Thank you for being here to support us and for the expectations you set. As our recent results show, the turnaround of the past three years is delivering real progress in farm metrics and stronger financial performance.
We are here tonight to mark a legacy that stretches back 140 years. In the early days, the Department of Lands & Survey ran settlement schemes that helped pioneers, returned soldiers, and young farmers onto farms, building the foundation for what we now know as the backbone of the New Zealand economy.
Tonight, I’ve brought with me an original ballot box from those early settlement days a small piece of history with a big legacy.
The Ballot box has a deep personal connection for me. My grandfather returned from WW2, entered a ballot, and won the right to purchase a 60-hectare farm in Reporoa, the same property I grow up on and fell in love with farming and that my brother still proudly farms today and where we would watch Country Calendar on the couch as a family.
While that ballot changed the course of my family’s life, I need to acknowledge that not everyone had the same opportunity. Many people were excluded from those systems, and the playing field was far from equitable.
This sets the scene for the changes that followed the return of whenua to iwi and hapū through Te Tiriti settlements, and the reforms of the 80s that reshaped us into the commercially focused organisation we are today.
And while the structures around us evolved, one thing remains constant: the strength and adaptability of our people. With development taking new forms - from land development to providing opportunities for thousands of farmers over the years, starting as apprentices, to working their whole careers at Pāmu, while others have gone through share-farming on the journey to farm ownership and others have left to work on private farms, return to family farms, and some have left and come back.
Tonight, we’re joined by some of these remarkable people.
I want to acknowledge Jimmy and Claire from Parikānapa, who opened his gates to Country Calendar in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, showcasing not just good farming but deep care for his team and animals.
Micky — Alan McDonald and Kushla (Alan is former world champion shearer who I am sure will tell you the story of beating Sir David Fagan in the final), and this month he hosts the Country Calendar crew at Te Whārua for the second time, ten years on from his first episode.
Letting cameras into your world takes courage and trust, and we’re grateful to those among us who share our stories. They remind us why Pāmu exists:
- Profitability goes without saying
- to contribute to a strong food and fibre sector
- to support our rural communities where our people live and farm, and
- to farm in a way all New Zealanders can be proud of.
Alright — the moment you’ve been waiting for. I’d like people to picture the scene of what a land ballot was like back in the day.
At any given land ballot, there were usually 10–30 farms in the ballot and up to 200+ people, with demand almost always exceeding supply. People remembered the sound of names being read, the pause before each announcement and the feeling that a lifetime of effort could hinge on a single slip of paper.
A single draw could determine whether a family stayed landless, or if a returned soldier could farm or had to go back to labouring or shearing. The odds were often worse than people expected, which explains the tension and silence remembered in accounts
That’s why it appears so often in memoirs, oral histories, and rural stories it captured a moment where chance met ambition in a very public way. Land ballots shaped rural New Zealand.
If you were one of the first 100 through the door and grabbed a ticket tonight. This little ballot box the one that once decided who got a farm is now deciding something far less life-changing… but still pretty-exciting the winner can enjoy a good meat pack and special edition Country Calendar scratchies.
Drumroll - And let’s see who tonight’s lucky winner is ...
To finish, it’s great to see so many familiar faces. Taste of Country, at its heart, is about people the stories we share and the pride we take in the work we do. Thank you for being here, thank you for everything you do, and thank you to Country Calendar and TVNZ for helping us share the Pāmu story across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Now, I’ll hand back to Carol for a final toast.
