Jamie Mackay: Good luck Jacinda - well, sort of.

Jamie Mackay has a few rural questions for Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern in this week's opinion piece. Photo / Brett Phibbs

As expected, good West Coaster and good bloke Damien O'Connor got the top farming job in the new Labour-NZ First Coalition Cabinet.

But in somewhat of a surprise 'back-to-the-future' move he becomes the new Minister of Agriculture with the old job of Minister for Primary Industries being disestablished, to use modern management vernacular.

In breaking up the old portfolio Shane Jones gets Forestry, overseeing the planting of a billion trees over 10 years, while the well-performed Stuart Nash gets Fisheries.

David Parker, who has sometimes had a fractious relationship with farmers (remember the Ashburton threat to double the water tax?), gets the key Environment portfolio.

How the new government deals with the environment, water quality and introducing agriculture into an Emissions Trading Scheme will be very interesting.

Farmers worried about a Labour led-government making their lives tougher can take some solace in having Winston inside the tent for once.

He has bargained away the water royalty (let's be honest, it's a tax), made sure the incoming government honours existing support for irrigation, negotiated a 95% exemption (as opposed to the proposed 90%) for agriculture being included in the ETS and set up a billion dollar per annum regional development fund.

A Free Trade Agreement with Russia, which is a real Winston hobby horse, could also be real boost for Kiwi dairy farmers. Investment in regional rail will be a boon for the likes of the Poverty Bay region with the likely reinstatement of the Gisborne-Napier rail link.

There are also some interesting side stories to ponder, including a potential lack of buyers for the significant number of farms that are expected to come on the market in the coming months.

A lot of large, good performing properties (especially dairy farms in the plus $10 million range) are expected to be coming on stream as those who have survived the 2014-17 dairy downturn look to exit the industry. Albeit for many with a bit of friendly encouragement from their banks.

The new coalition government's tougher stance on foreign investment, courtesy of strengthening the Overseas Investment Act, will undoubtedly make life tougher for rural real estate agents. Having said I think we need to be careful we don't put out the "not for sale" sign as we're still a nation that's low on capital and needs some foreign investment.

All of which raises some questions for Jacinda, Winston and James:

When will agriculture be introduced into the ETS? The water tax is off the table but what about the Greens' nitrate levy? It's notable by its absence in any coalition rhetoric.

Immigration is going to be cut but by how much? Who is going to milk our cows, pick our fruit and wipe old peoples' bottoms in our rest homes?

What is the incoming government going to do about the urban/rural rift that was propagated by the divisive election campaign? And don't say it's not there because just look at the protest vandalism last week in Canterbury.

And finally, on a much lighter note, you've got to love the conspiracy theorists that abound on social media. Somewhat tongue-in-cheek, some suggested female Prime Ministers are a curse on the All Blacks following last weekend's Bledisloe blunder in Brisbane.

For the first and only time in history, the All Blacks lost five tests in row in 1998 under new National Prime Minister Jenny Shipley. Then there was the semi-final shocker against France at the 1999 Rugby World Cup. Four weeks later Shipley was out of a job.

Things didn't improve under stewardship of her replacement Helen Clark with dismal departures from the 2003 and 2007 World Cups. We only came right with a three-way Prime Ministerial handshake and John Key in 2011. He did the business again in 2015 before deciding to quit while he was ahead.

Poor old Jacinda was only two days into her tenure as Prime Minister-elect (Bill's political corpse was barely cold) when she was deemed to have done what very few have done in the past seven years. Bring down the All Blacks!

The 2019 Rugby World Cup final is scheduled for November 2 at the International Stadium in Yokohama, almost two years to the day from now. So why do I feel guilty about having mixed emotions in wishing our new Prime Minister all the best for the next three years?