AMINZ Rural Day: Navigating Pressure, Conflict and Change
Economic pressure, regulatory change, climate expectations and intergenerational transition are placing increasing strain on farm businesses and the relationships that sustain them. Against this backdrop, AMINZ Rural Day is bringing together people from across the sector to explore the pressures contributing to conflict and practical approaches to preventing, managing and resolving disputes.
The event is designed for farmers, advisers, mediators, lawyers, lenders, insurers and others working across the rural sector, offering practical insight into the challenges of resolving disputes and constructive pathways forward.
“Rural Day is an opportunity for people from across the sector to share practical insights and explore some of the real pressures facing the rural sector,” says Monique Pearson, Executive Director of AMINZ. “This year’s programme is grounded in the situations people are actually dealing with: financial pressure, commercial relationships under strain, difficult family conversations and the demands placed on those helping people through conflict.”
Tavendale + Partners is again supporting AMINZ Rural Day as a partner and host. “As a firm with deep connections to the rural sector, we are proud to support AMINZ Rural Day,” says Janine Turkington, Business Development Executive at Tavendale + Partners. “The role of mediation in the rural context, from farm debt to succession and beyond, is important to the clients and communities we work alongside every day.”
AMINZ Rural Day is New Zealand’s only annual event dedicated to dispute resolution in the rural sector, and one of a range of events that support improved dispute resolution and continuing professional development across several sectors.
In June 2026, we launched an education video series in partnership with the Ministry of Primary Industries for farmers, creditors and advisers. The series provides a practical introduction to the Farm Debt Mediation Scheme and explains the key steps involved in the mediation process.
Rural Day will explore how financial, commercial, and wider pressures can translate into disputes across the sector, including farm debt, banking relationships, contracts, and supply arrangements.
Keynote speaker, former New Zealand Trade Commissioner to Japan and Korea, David Ferguson will explore how global and domestic pressures – from interest rates and input costs to market volatility and regulatory change – are reshaping farming and where those pressures could lead to disputes over debt, partnerships and supply arrangements.
The day will examine the particular challenges involved in succession, including the intersection of family dynamics, financial pressures, and differing expectations.
The programme will also turn its attention to how people respond to threat and stress, and how we can look after ourselves and others when times are tough. Leading expert in behavioural change, communication and inclusion Suran Dickson will lead “People in the Middle – Part One: Recognising Threat and Stress and Building Wellbeing under Pressure”.
Other confirmed speakers include farmers, lawyers, mediators, banking and finance professionals, and rural advisers, including Anna Kilpatrick of ANZ, Guy Polson, Linda Adams, and Leandra Fitzgibbon of Tavendale + Partners, Farm Debt Mediators Penny Mudford, Mark Copeland, Peter Glassford and Malcolm Wallace, Nick Walls of Leech and Partners, and Mark Grenside of Forsyth Barr.
All interested parties are invited to join these conversations and contribute to developing solutions tailored to the unique needs of New Zealand’s rural communities.
Register to join us on 27 August at Tavendale + Partners’ Christchurch HQ, or online: https://www.aminz.org.nz/events/aminz-rural-day-2026
