The Country - Watergate edition

Today on The Country, Jamie Mackay has renamed the Government's Essential Freshwater package 'Watergate', after hearing concerns from farmers in North Otago yesterday.

On with the show:

Simon Bridges:

In a Country exclusive we coin a new and highly imaginative phrase for the farmer response to the government's proposed water reforms. Plus we ask if the Labour Party 'sex scandal' is a beltway issue or is it exorcising the country?

Chris Garland:

Is a Wairarapa farm consultant who's been in the business since 1980. Today he says he has never seen farmer morale so low - and that includes the tumultuous years of the Rogernomics reforms in the 1980s.

Rob Hewett:

The chairman of Silver Fern Farms and the chairman-elect of Farmlands says despite really positive returns for farmers, he has real concerns about the state of the farming nation.

Andy Thompson and Tony Laker:

Today's panel features the country's leading travel agent and the country's leading critic of the government's water reforms.

Chris Russell:

Our Australian correspondent says it very difficult to fight raging bush fires in a drought but the good news there's a drought tolerant beer being brewed.