Groundswell NZ has a new radio show and broadcast legend Peter Williams is the host.
Peter toured with Groundswell NZ last year throughout the South Island when the rural lobby group held public meetings in Invercargill, Gore, Alexandra and Balclutha. He currently lives near Bendigo in Central Otago.
The new radio show is aired on Friday mornings primarily using Radio Central’s frequencies across Alexandra, Roxburgh, Maniototo, Arrowtown and Queenstown, and soon into Wanaka.
Groundswell’s show also airs on other frequencies around New Zealand, including on Cave FM 106.4FM in Gore, and on West Coast Radio in Auckland and Northland.
The Groundswell NZ show is described as ‘real yarns with real down to earth kiwis about urban and rural issues.’
Invercargill Mayor Nobby Clark was interviewed by Peter Williams about Three Waters last week.
Peter also interviewed both Groundswell founders Bryce McKenzie and Laurie Patterson for the first show five weeks ago.
Bryce talked about his first ever Facebook post back in 2020 that went viral, eventually reaching 1.2 million people and thus Groundswell NZ was born.
Laurie Peterson’s wife read the post and urged her husband to join him and get in touch.
The pair had never met, but once the two farmers got together (one lives on the border of Otago near Tapanui, the other based firmly in Waikaka, Southland), they decided to drive their tractors to Gore.
Next stop in mid-2021 was the nationwide tractor protest that was arguably the biggest rural protest in history.
Bryce said it wasn’t hard to organise as they were overrun by volunteers wanting to get involved.
“Farmers felt like they had lost their voice and were overridden.”
Admittedly there have been bumps in the road along the way, “some abused it as their own personal campaign,” Bryce said, and Groundswell NZ has had to distance themselves from them.
“We thought that there would be a lot of anger out there and maybe take the law into their own hands, but we’re pretty pleased with the whole thing.”
Peter asked if he thought Groundswell NZ had changed attitudes, changed anyone’s thinking and most importantly any legislation?
“Because we have tried to aim it at the Government, and their lack of consultation when they try to legislate, we felt we were making an impact,” Bryce said.
“They are conscious that we are there and we are not afraid to speak out.”
Yes there have been some changes to legislation as a result, and Bryce also gave credit to Federated Farmers for also helping with that.
“We have motivated people to say, ‘this is wrong and there needs to be change.”
