Hard News: What I'd really like to know
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In fairness to Key, HC could be pretty terrible under questioning early in her time as leader. With time (a lot of time), she became brilliant.
The critical difference was that the media criticized and harangued Clark constantly early in her leadership (incl. in the infamous 16% days), whereas John Key has generally been given a free ride. Some have been keen to anoint him Prime Minister for Life and Saviour of All Things Good.
Re: Paul Henry - we all know what you mean, Tom. I think Winston Peters is probably the most likely to stand up to him (verbally) and say "you're a complete and utter idiot, and I can't take you seriously, jackass."
Re: Fonterra. Given the success you speak of RB, do you have any sense of whether it really requires this, um, subsidy?
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Fonterra won't be a NZ company in 30yrs as the water consents will dry up then.
But before any of this happens including paying off the mortgaged farms. Fonterra will be based closer to its markets in even lower wage economies than NZ.
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Paul - food for thought there. The region this refers to is presumably the "Environment Waikato region" which encompasses a large area (incl. much prime dairy land) far beyond the urban boundaries of the 'Tron.
As for Queenstown ... I expect you're right in part. The same factors are probably contributing to some impressive growth in Hastings & Havelock North. Internationally, though, resort towns are often driven by growth and prosperity in nearby urban centres? (e.g., Whistler - which is reasonably proximate to Vancouver).
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And seriously, is it wise to send Brian Connell anywhere?
Perhaps John Key is actually a genius and didn’t want Brian Connell anywhere near NZ for as much of election year as possible...
But seriously – it was all over the television news last night too. Crapo lazy coverage. And from talks I’ve had today, people are getting pretty sick of this kind of juvenile journalism from our MSM.
As Vernon predicted, it pretty much overshadowed the fantastic science funding announcement. Why cant we have a proper discussion on the big issues facing New Zealand? Why?
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I thought John Key looked tired on breakfast T.V. this morning. And - though I can't believe I am saying this - the petty, hectoring and patronising style of Paul Henry during the interview made me feel sorry for Mr.Key
No, I believe it quite easily -- because I wouldn't wish Henry on the evil demoness Hullun Klark either. :) Then again, breakfast television seems to be exclusively staffed with the kind of people whose brains don't start working before lunch.
i think now it's becoming obvious that Key can't handle spontaneous questioning, you're starting to see more hectoring from journalists too.
Snowy: the only way Paul Henry should be 'handled' is with a shovel and rubber gloves. And am I the only Morning Report listener who finds it regrettable that Sean Plunket is (occasionally) relapsing into 'hectoring' mode. I don't see why anyone -- let alone Clark and Key -- should put up with it. I guess, Snowy, it's all good fun if you don't like the arsehole on the receiving end, but you've got to wonder how informative it really is.
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Anyone provide the link to this information? Interested in how long the fund will be around for/how often it will be topped up if it's designed to provide more than it earns...
It's in the Morning Report item, starting at the 3 minute point. She says that the fund will expire in 10 - 15 years which is a bit vague.
Also, it looks like John Banks has actually done something. While I didn't vote for him, I did keep my fingers crossed that he would stand up to the CitRats when it counted.
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"Paul Henry's questions.... would be funny from Ricky Gervais but from a “journalist” it was just sad."
he reminded me of Mike Moore from the Australian news comedy Frontline
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Yes, they'll moan & bitch about anything.
Paul, I really hope you're doing Labour's campaign advertising: STOP BITCHING YOU UNGRATEFUL PRICKS would look splendid on a billboard. :)
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Genius, Craig.
Perhaps "You don't know how lucky you are" would be a bit more palatable while expressing the same sentiment? Plus there's a groovy song already written to that effect.
But Paul's right. Have you ever listened to the rural news on RNZ?
"Farmers in x say it's too windy. Farmers in y say its too dry. Farmers in z say it's too cloudy. Farmers in...."
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a screaming need to find ways to enjoy the current dairy bounty without exhausting all our clean water, and to try and curb our pastoral greenhouse gas problem
Would something like this help? Or could something like that be adapted for pastoral farming?
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"...Also, it looks like John Banks has actually done something..."
I was stunned at that as well! I just hope he gets his wife to start the car for him in the morning from now on. -
It's in the Morning Report item, starting at the 3 minute point. She says that the fund will expire in 10 - 15 years which is a bit vague.
Right, thanks. Unfortunately not computer literate enough to get around the firewall-type prompts I get at work when I try and open a windows media file!
So they're basically looking at providing $50-70m a year, topped up with whatever interest they're earning early on in the fund. I imagine that won't be evenly spread though, weighted more towards the end. -
dc_red:
Re: Fonterra. Given the success you speak of RB, do you have any sense of whether it really requires this, um, subsidy?
And Shep:
But before any of this happens including paying off the mortgaged farms. Fonterra will be based closer to its markets in even lower wage economies than NZ.
Fonterra is now operating farms in China, and I think it's a done deal that it will increasingly produce in or near its major markets.
But the smart strategy is to keep the intellectual property here, in New Zealand, because the big dairy company is the closest thing we're likely to have to our own Nokia. That's why I was interested in the IP question, to which there doesn't yet seem to be an answer.
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"...Also, it looks like John Banks has actually done something..."
I was stunned at that as well! I just hope he gets his wife to start the car for him in the morning from now on.
Yikes. But yes, he has gone up considerably in my estimation.
And the CitRats have confirmed they're as duplicitous as ever.
And what the hell is up with Auckland City executives?
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But the smart strategy is to keep the intellectual property here, in New Zealand, because the big dairy company is the closest thing we're likely to have to our own Nokia
Which the industry in general is starting to do really well with regards to South America - taking all that IP generated over decades of being a farming-intensive nation and running farms in good ol cheap-land Chile. Combine that with a strong innovation and marketing-led Brands and you have a pretty successful formula with the scalabilty that NZ-based production can't provide.
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So they're basically looking at providing $50-70m a year, topped up with whatever interest they're earning early on in the fund. I imagine that won't be evenly spread though, weighted more towards the end.
Yep, that was what Clark indicated. Draw-downs would be fairly modest in the first few years and would increase as research comes online.
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And am I the only Morning Report listener who finds it regrettable that Sean Plunket is (occasionally) relapsing into 'hectoring' mode?
No.
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But Paul's right. Have you ever listened to the rural news on RNZ?
Often, but RNZ would be a lot of dead air if you didn't have every lobbyist, sector group and rentaquote "bitching and whining" about something. :) My scrubby patch of garden being under six inches of water -- or baked to the consistency of concrete -- would be a shitty thing, but my livelihood doesn't depend on it. So, yes, I think a bit of B&W about the weather isn';tW about the weather is totally in order.
And we townies are the paragon of stoic endurance in the face of flood, drought, electricity supply failures, power and petrol price increases, rate hikes and so forth. :)
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Hmmmm, will be interesting to see who heads the fund and makes those funding decisions. That's entirely what will make the difference in terms of the long-term impact on the economy. And as you alluded to in the original blog RB, hopefully those big impact ideas are there and waiting for funding.
But as I mentioned, the criteria are ones I like - encouraging clustering that, once setup, can be self-generating in terms of innovative ideas in specific fields; internationalisation such that this drives export growth; sustainability for both the marketing message and the long term support of the industry etc etc. Combine that with private investment (further incentivised by taking tax breaks on R&D) and it could be a great underpinning. Hopefully the media maintains a view of those funding decisions over the years and it is strongly monitored.
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And Good Lord, I had to stop watching that breakfast clip with Paul Henry. Couldn't bear it.
As much as I have bemoaned the lack of media scrutiny of Mr Key's positions, it would be equally as bad if they were to "balance" that out by thse types of shallow, soundbite-driven attacks without anything resembling critical analysis. -
Sod. The last sentence of my last should read: "So, yes, I think a bit of B&W about the weather isn't totally out of order from people whose livelihoods are intimately connected with it."
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IP is a fine idea but what indication has Fonterra given that they intend to remain a NZ based company?
Surely the logical extention of their policy is to move closer to the growing production areas and markets?
On creation the 1st thing Fonterra did was raise the price of milk 5cents. This has continued and "world prices" are paid in NZ when world costs don't apply.
Principally water is free which is not the case in the rest of the world. I shud be clear any cost of delivery is not a cost of water itself.
Those concerned with the local NZ environment are ruminating on various ways to assist Fonterra & their shareholders to tidy up their act and reduce their impact here.
European based campaigns to show the reality of the environmental impact in NZ one idea. If people buy the product thinking the of the Shire but then realise Fonterra is in fact Saruman the White this may prove effective.
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Yes, but it took a trip to Asia last year to bring home to me how bloody big Fonterra is, and what it's doing to open new markets, especially in terms of creating products targeted to those markets. It is genuinely important.
I find Fonterra a perplexing company - it brings in billions of overseas earnings, which is good, but it's suppliers/owners canbe notorious polluters, and its use of water is highly suspect (I once read it takes a thousand litres of water to make a litre of milk - that can't be right can it?), which is bad.
Despite its promises when it was created, Fonterra's payout to farmers has been mostly awful ($3.63 to $4.59 kg/MS range from 2003-2007. This year will be a bumper payout - currently estimated at $6.90 - but not a result of Fonterra adding value, just the world explosion in milk prices. It doesn't appear that the mega-merger has had any real benefits for farmers, something sheep & beef farmers should keep in mind during the proposed PPCS & Alliance merger. Fonterra's ability to grow returns to shareholders through its brands (like chocolate cheese) are hampered by the high commodity milk price. It's efforts in China are realatively small-scale - San Lu is a major regional player, not a Nationwide player in China, Fonterra needs to keep an eye on the likes of Nestle & Danone who have the capital backing to move in China big time. Farmers' returns can only grow by expanding significantly overseas, something its management understands, but farmers seem unwilling to accept.
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Craig, are you some sort of lefty 5th columnist? That campaign slogan is brill, why didn't someone come up with it earlier?
"So, yes, I think a bit of B&W about the weather isn't totally out of order from people whose livelihoods are intimately connected with it."
Very true, but it's not news! (and I agree, moaning about power cuts etc is tiresome too)
DC, the stat is for the Waikato region in general, yes. But I would suggest that the drivers of Hamilton's growth are proximity to Auckland and a successful agriculture industry in the Waikato.
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I just happen to have the Statistics NZ Labour market stats for 2006 (latest currently available) open in front of me! At the end of March 2006, 151,2000 people worked in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing SIC while only 99,9000 worked in Accommodation Cafes and Restaurants. In addition to those directly employed in primary industries, a high proportion of those working in manufacturing (and that is another 280,100) are engaged in food processing.
And numbers of people employed is only part of the equation. The fund is intended to facilitate innovation and the development of innovation and high value products which will in turn generate greater wealth across the economy. I'm no economist but I'd rather live in a country that has its eye to the future than the sort of cheap and nasty path that we seemed to be going down in the 1990s.
And I may also be a died in the wool latte drinking urban dweller, but in my view the primary production sector will continue to be the engine of the NZ economy for a good while to come.
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