Much of the conversations around agriculture at the moment centre around the lack of staff, or more specifically the inability of farmers to be able to harvest crops.

The problem extends from strawberries to squash to tree fruits and arable crops.

The feeling that government is either not understanding or not listening is exacerbated by the fact that the fishing fleet has been able to bring in foreign staff while crops rot.

Adding further insult to injury, the fishing staff are coming from countries that have to be considered high risk for COVID-19, like Russia, Ukraine etc while many of the potential horticulture staff would be sourced from countries that are free of COVID-19 (and have been all along), have trained workers, and are from countries we (i.e. New Zealand) are meant to be supporting through development and economically. Russia certainly doesn’t fit that bill.

The machinery drivers for the arable sector are in a different situation to other sectors. As most of them will be coming from Northern Hemisphere countries and therefore would need to go through the MIQ process, which despite earlier government assurances does not seem available at least until after Christmas.

This goes back to my argument that the Minister for MPI if he is advocating for Ag is not being heard and is at risk of being a place holder and little else.

A big difference between the horticulture and arable sectors (and I include hay and baleage in here), and the fishing industry, is the fact that the crops don’t stop growing and indeed very soon (too late for some) will begin deteriorating.

The fish stocks will still be there next month and the month after and indeed may will be better off for a small respite.

The news of the Pfizer vaccine is some concrete welcome news. However, it will still be some months before New Zealand can see the positive benefit. The interval between the two doses would be between 21 and 28 days, according to an official. He said that meant people would not be fully protected until 14 days after the second dose.

The government made the correct call to invest in getting early access to the Pfizer vaccine, a deal that would get New Zealand about 1.5 million COVID-19 vaccines - or enough for 750,000 people. But that's subject to the makers of those vaccines - Pfizer and BioNTech - successfully completing Phase III clinical trials, and passing regulatory approvals here. A spokesman did make the coveat that they did still have to complete the critical Phase 3 trials and one of the questions still to be answered was about the remaining 10% or so that didn’t pick up any virus protection. Are these individuals more or less vulnerable to catching the virus? No doubt elderly and other vulnerable people along with those having to deal with incoming cases at the border will be the priority groups to receive the first run out of vaccines whenever that occurs.

With a potential end in sight for the virus, be it twelve months away or so, the next major cab of the rank is the effects of climate change.

Within New Zealand we will have our own set of problems, this week’s flooding is no doubt a small precursor of things to come (along with droughts, winds etc.). However, our small neighbors’ to the north, i.e. the Pacific Islands are going to be far greater affected.

Isn’t it about time our on-again off-again RSE started to be seen as more of a lifeline to climate refugees from the Pacific and a proper program of skills training and a more permanent arrangement be made?

New Zealand is going to increasingly require more skilled labour and the Pacific is going to increasingly require permanent assistance as sea levels rise and the ferocity of storms increases.

At the moment while the RSE provide some help to both horticulture and the Pacific Islands a more long-term arrangement needs to be made. New Zealand has been fortunate in being out of the direct firing line of refugees coming out of the Middle East, Africa and Central America (to name some) and not having to look them in the eyes. But some additional responsibility needs to be taken for those that rely upon us and sooner rather than later. The PM’s with her family connection to Niue, Tokelau, Samoa among other islands, (Ross Ardern (Her father) was appointed Commissioner of Police for the Pacific island of Niue in 2005 for a two-year term, which was extended to four years. During this time, he was chair of the Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police for one year. Ross Ardern also served as New Zealand Police liaison officer for the South Pacific, based in Samoa, from 2009 to 2013. In October 2013, he was named by Minister of Foreign Affairs Murray McCully as the next High Commissioner of New Zealand to Niue. He took up the post in February 2014. On 15 December 2017, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Winston Peters, announced that Ardern would be the next Administrator of Tokelau, from early 2018 a position he is still serving in) is likely to be very well acquainted with the problems around climate change and all its ramifications in the Pacific.

An irony is that Polynesia, despite being largely free of Covid-19 right through the pandemic (Tahiti aside), we are hearing reports that a cargo ship with infected crew members spent 22 hours at Apia Samoa. While no ‘community cases’ have yet been revealed the likelihood must be reasonably high. If an outbreak does occur in Samoa it would be a disaster for them with the potential finishing line in sight as well as for the RSE program.

A report published in 2019 using 2018 numbers shows that within the horticulture industry the labour force is made up of 55% domestic workers, 16% seasonal (RSE) and 29% backpackers and other migrant workers. With 45% of workers sourced from outside the borders the problem of where labour is to come from is rapidly going to ‘hit the fan’.

It is almost too late to set things right for this season, but it would be good to see some productive conversations taking place.