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rural-divide

OPINIONSocietyJuly 22, 2021

How real is the rural-urban divide?

Contributing writer
rural-divide

If New Zealand is going to move towards a more sustainable primary sector, then media, politicians and fringe groups need to stop stoking division, writes Laura Walters.

Last week thousands of farmers descended on towns and cities across the country for the so-called Howl of Protest, a demonstration against government policies that farmers say are severely damaging the rural sector. The Southland town of Gore was gridlocked with 600 tractors, 1200 utes, and about 50 truck and trailer units. Overhead, four helicopters and a plane got in on the action. Similar scenes played out all over New Zealand. A resident of one provincial city described it as “the best Santa Parade, ever”.

To some onlookers, the protests would seem illustrative of a rural sector that is resistant to change, a far cry from the sorts of innovative, sustainable ideas – a whiskey distillery on a sheep and beef farm, for example, or an organic co-op with a reduced environmental footprint – that are celebrated on the likes of Country Calendar.

Ahead of the Howl of Protest, many left-wing politicians, farming industry bodies and even portions of the rural community itself predicted the protests would be dominated by this staunchly conservative rural minority. In anticipation of division and backlash, they distanced themselves from the protests.

The ute that organiser Colin Rowse drove to the Howl of Protest in Dargaville last week (Photo: Alex Braae)

Labour MP Kieran McAnulty said he wouldn’t be joining the demonstration because he believed the sentiment behind it undermined the hard work of the majority of farmers who were keen to get ahead of the curve.

“Now is not the time to tread water,” he wrote in a lengthy Twitter thread supporting continued progress towards more sustainable, high-value production and environmentally conscious farming.

The MP said he feared the protests would undo the work to bring urban-based environmental groups and farmers together, stoking the rural-urban divide.

“It’ll make farmers look stubborn and resistant to change, which on the whole they are not. It’ll make them look like climate change deniers, which most of them aren’t.

“There will no doubt be someone that does or says something that will hurt the image of the farmers I know, and potentially, it’ll hurt how those overseas view us.”

Those who consumed news of the protest through Twitter threads, or watched the coverage on national television news, could be forgiven for thinking this was exactly what Friday’s demonstrations amounted to.

Fringe groups, conspiracy theorists and far-right political parties hitched their wagon to the movement, and it looked destined to divide, with shots of racist and misogynistic placards stealing the show.

Other coverage focused on the “ute tax”, painting farmers as out of touch. Some overly simplified reporting ignored grievances about what farmers believed was a poorly thought-out regulatory work plan (in terms of ordering, timing and some practical issues), and a government that continued to promise engagement without actually listening.

A protester and his remarkable dog at the Howl of Protest in Dargaville, July 16 2021 (Photo: Alex Braae)

But by and large, the protests weren’t what many thought they would be. They were attended by a significant portion of the country’s primary sector, and supported by people across the country, including many from urban centres.

This type of response is consistent with national polling on New Zealanders’ support of farmers. UMR surveys continue to show people have a positive attitude towards the primary industries.

In 2020, 65% of people held a positive view of horticulture (down 4% year-on-year), along with 63% of people feeling positive towards sheep and beef farming (up 17%) and 60% positive towards dairy farming (up 18%).

While the amount of farmland in New Zealand is reducing (from 15,589,885 hectares in 2002 to 13,561,175ha in 2019, or a 13% reduction), and more people now live in urban areas (84% in 2018) people’s connection with the rural and primary sectors remains strong. This goes hand-in-hand with an acknowledgment of how much this portion of the country contributes to the economy, as well as the community’s efforts to become more efficient and sustainable.

Bryce McKenzie, the co-founder of Groundswell NZ, the group that organised the protests, said that far from stoking the rural-urban divide, he hoped the protests would bring people together and start a conversation.

“One of our aims is to unite people, because if we’re not united, then we’re going to fall,” he told The Spinoff.

McKenzie, a farmer and conservationist from the West Otago Valley, said there was too much of a “beat-up” of the rural-urban divide, a problem exacerbated by the eagerness of a small minority – the conspiracists, the racists and the extremists – to hijack the debate.

“I think the further we go, the more we find that there is a real rowdy faction that are actively trying to cause division; that have agendas that perhaps aren’t in the best interest of New Zealand as a whole, and definitely not in the best interest of rural people.”

McKenzie said these “rowdy factions” had dominated the public discourse for too long.

“I think we are really finding out how small of a minority they are. They’re just very rowdy, that’s all. Maybe it’s time we become a little bit more rowdy ourselves.”

A protester holds up a sign saying ‘SNA – NO WAY’ in Richmond in the Tasman district at one of more than 50 events held round the country on July 16 (Photo: Andy MacDonald/Getty Images)

While Federated Farmers had been careful to stand apart from Groundswell NZ ahead of Friday’s protests, national president Andrew Hoggard told The Spinoff it was notable that people across the country had abandoned the farm for the day coming into the busiest time of the year.

“That tells me a hell of a lot of people are concerned, frustrated, annoyed, whatever you want to call it.”

Hoggard said he was “blown away” by the number of people who turned up to the protests, as well as the number of non-farming New Zealanders who waved and yelled support from the footpath.

He likened the government’s work plan to “a really bad renovation job”.

“Everyone agrees with the big picture direction, but these policies, regulations and legislation are coming out in random orders. It’s like there’s not a workplan behind it.”

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When asked whether Federated Farmers had dropped the ball in its duty to be a voice for farmers in Wellington, Hoggard said they had been raising concerns with officials and ministers.

Maybe we’ve just been a little too polite. Maybe we need to be blunter,” he said.

“For the average farmer, the key point is they all want their kids to be swimming in the local rivers that run through their farms. At the end of the day we all want our farms to be better for the next generation, but we don’t want to spend all day filling in forms.”

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Matai

SocietyJuly 21, 2021

The Gisborne research centre looking for more hearts and brains

Contributing Writer
Matai

With sophisticated medical imaging devices, Tairāwhiti Gisborne’s Mātai Institute has been set up with the explicit purpose of improving health outcomes of Māori and regional residents.

It’s not often an advanced medical research centre sets up outside of New Zealand’s main centres – far removed from large study populations. It’s even less common that one sets up with the exclusive intent of improving health outcomes for kaupapa Māori.

Yet that’s exactly what Dr Samantha Holdsworth did. In 2019, when she returned to her hometown of Tairāwhiti Gisborne in 2019, the former Stanford scientist founded the Mātai Institute, a not-for-profit research centre that specialises in medical imaging using new and advanced software, post-processing and artificial intelligence. Since late 2020, the institute is home to a state-of-the-art MRI machine – a General Electric Healthcare 3-Tesla – which is able to create high-resolution scans of the brain, heart and body.

Dr Samantha Holdsworth (Photo: Supplied)

But it is helping Tairāwhiti’s residents, and including more Māori in the healthcare conversation, that is truly the purpose of Mātai’s advanced technology. Mātai Institute COO Leigh Potter (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Rongomaiwahine, Rongowhakaata) believes that making the best use of this MRI machine will require gaining the participation of Tairāwhiti’s locals. Potter spent 15 years setting up and supporting the radiology clinical practice at Hauora Tairāwhiti (Gisborne Hospital) and so has first-hand experience of the needs of this community.

An important part of Mātai’s engagement effort will be to connect with Mātai’s Māori community, says Potter, who has been passionate about improving outcomes for Māori throughout her career.

“First and foremost we set up a Māori advisory board that we’ve called Ngā Māngai Māori, which translates to the ‘Voices of Māori’,” she says.

“We have representation from local iwi health providers, primary care, a local kaumatua who works at Hauora Tairāwhiti and other experts from the area.”

Potter says the combination of different expertise at the table will ensure the research at Mātai responds to the needs of the local community with the aim of improving health outcomes.

“We’re always thinking about how we might do better for Māori or engage more effectively with our Māori community.”

Potter points to Mātai’s planned research into dementia as being a body of work that was directly inspired by input from Māori whānau who were concerned by the increasing rates of the condition among their loved ones. In other cases, Mātai’s work has been motivated by differences in disease outcomes between rural and urban patients – a prime example being its ongoing research into prostate cancer.

The institute recently made a significant breakthrough by developing a “game-changing” prostate cancer diagnostic pathway. The project, titled Accuracy and Equity in Prostate Cancer Diagnosis, will be led by the clinical lead at Mātai, Dr Daniel Cornfeld, and is aimed at vastly improving New Zealand’s current diagnostic pathway in prostate cancer, particularly for those who live in under-served and remote communities.

Potter says addressing the disadvantage of regional communities is what Mātai is all about. The best way to create equitable health outcomes, she says, has been to look for ways to flip current clinical models on their head.

“In some rural locations, it’s very difficult to get access to specialists. For example, in Tairāwhiti you might only have a specialist that visits once or twice a month. So, alongside my colleague Dr Daniel Cornfeld, we looked at a model whereby patients who have an elevated PSA (prostate-specific antigen) are first brought into Mātai to have a scan of their prostate.

“MRI is very good at examining the prostate, and we then have the equipment to do a targeted biopsy. We’re able to target the area of concern and validate that there’s an issue,” she says.

Dr Samantha Holdsworth and Leigh Potter (Photo: Supplied)

Essentially it means the specialists can make sure people who are waiting to see a urologist are triaged properly. Those without an issue are taken out of the queue, therefore speeding up the process for those who are in urgent need of treatment.

One feature that makes MRI a useful research tool is the fact scans are noninvasive and use a magnetic field and radio waves instead of radiation. This broad applicability has led to Mātai’s plans for the Tairāwhiti Child Wellbeing Study, which will use MRI to follow the health of 500 local children from a young age.

Robby Green is one of the researchers working on the project and he believes Mātai is uniquely located to undertake this study:

“Tairāwhiti has the youngest population in the country… Tairāwhiti is also a stable community, making it a great opportunity to design research in partnership with our local people and with increasing retention of those participating in the research.”

Alongside local iwi health organisations, Mātai plans to build on growing relationships with staff from the Auckland Bioengineering Institute and Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences to find a range of MRI approaches that will support the Tairāwhiti Child Wellbeing Study. With ground-breaking MRI methods, the team will work towards an hour-long MRI scan with a break in between, which has previously been unachievable with young people, to capture high-quality images of various organs.

No other study the Mātai team is aware of has involved children and used this level of advanced imaging of the brain and other organs. It will allow the researchers to detect the early signs of diseases such as cardiomyopathies, diabetes and lung disease that usually don’t present clinically until patients are 40-50 years old, even if they begin developing much earlier. Once the pilot study is complete, the staff at Mātai will embark on extensive consultation, Green says.

“Mātai is a small organisation and Gisborne is a relatively small community so it’s realistic to visit every school, community centre and marae that will be involved to build the relationships that you need to make this kind of study work.

“We want to build a study that is in tune with the priorities of our community – asking questions that align with what people here want to understand and address; designing it with them in such a way that they don’t just feel ownership but do have ownership of it.”

Society