Unlikely pair guiding Groundswellas farmers make feelings heard

• Published date: 03 August 2021

In fact, Laurie Paterson and Bryce McKenzie have never been involved in any sort of protest during their lengthy farming careers. Until now.

The cofounders of Groundswell NZ have ultimately been responsible for the biggest protests some towns have ever seen.

Being described as an activist took Mr McKenzie (68), a semi-retired West Otago farmer, by surprise.

‘‘I said, ‘I’m not an activist’. They said, ‘what are you?’ I thought, ‘what am I?’ Somebody that’s concerned about what’s happening to New Zealand, that’s all I am.’’

As to the origins of the Groundswell juggernaut, Mr McKenzie good-naturedly blames his wife Karen.

‘‘That was the start — it was me complaining to my wife.’’

She told him to stop moaning and do something about it, so he wrote a Facebook post in August last year in which he outlined how he was ‘‘struggling to understand what the politicians who make the laws are trying to do to the farmers and people of New Zealand’’.

‘‘Why would we get laws that no-one can make sense of ?’’ he wrote.

It had more than 7000 shares and led to another wife urging her husband to act; Greenvale farmer Sharon Paterson suggested to her husband that he give Mr McKenzie a call.

The pair had met probably only several times previously. Now Mr Paterson quipped they should have a ‘‘special line put through’’.

And Mr McKenzie has no regrets about penning the post that kicked it all off.

‘‘It’s a terrible thing to say [but] New Zealand was ready for it, not just farming.’’

He has spent all his life on the land, including about 45 years farming on his own account. His sons now farm the same land he and his father had farmed— ‘‘I’m back to being the boy; I’ve done the full circle’’ — and his roles now include driving a tractor, rearing calves and filling in.

He has also been heavily involved with the award-winning Pomahaka Water Care Group, a farmer-led...