Bryce Edwards: Political round-up: January 27

Following the Government's approval of the Shanghai Pengxin bid on Crafar farms, they are hoping the issues drop off the radar. Photo / Christine Cornege

Now that the Government has approved the Shanghai Pengxin bid for the Crafar farms it will be hoping this sensitive issue drops off the radar. But with a potential legal review by Michael Fay, and both David Shearer and Winston Peters sensing political capital to be made, it's likely to drag on. Pattrick Smellie (Transparency set to increase for OIO) argues that the Crafar farm and the Dotcom residency issues are linked because 'Migrants and foreign investors are perennial hot button issues both here and everywhere'. He also gives some background about why the Overseas Investment Office has taken so long to assess the bid, suggesting that the agency is not configured properly for the task.

The Government will have to stick to its line that the Pengxin bid met all legal criteria and that sentiment about selling land to foreign owners should not be taken into account - see: Audrey Young's No part for public opinion in China farm sale - Key. John Hartevelt says that John Key has brought the controversy on himself with his 'tenants in own land' rhetoric, and now fails to be able to explain why his effective support for the sale to Pengxin is not hypocritical - see: Sun always shines in the land of Key. This is particularly ironic as taxpayers (in the form of Landcorp) will indeed be the tenants, and the new owners are backed by cheap credit from the Chinese Government, who appear to have no qualms about actively supporting acquisition of assets.

Winston Peters, for whom the sale is bread and butter politics, has launched into John Key calling him 'weak kneed' - see John Hartevelt's Accusations of 'weak-kneed leadership' on Crafar. National has been at pains to point out that Labour approved hundreds of thousands of hectares of land sales to foreign buyers during their government. To avoid falling into the same rhetorical trap as John Key in future, David Shearer will have to come up with some hard policy changes. Scott Yorke starts this discussion in his blog post, Buying Our Land.

Shearer's backing of Michael Fay's bid is undermined by the widespread cynicism from across the political spectrum about Fay's use of patriotic appeal to secure the farms at a cut price - see: Cameron Slater's Draped in the flag of sanctimony (http://bit.ly/znkGkD) and No Right Turn's The enemy of my enemy is not my friend (http://bit.ly/zgIfTM).

There is a fair bit of amazement that the Government has shifted so quickly from it's optimistic fiscal forecast prior to the election to its much more downbeat projection. And, yes, it's only been eight weeks since John Key was on the campaign trail suggesting that National might even be able to beat it's own promise of a return to surplus by a full year - see: Audrey Young's PM lowers odds on reaching surplus. Key says that sticking to the target for surplus by 2014-15 was important for New Zealand's credibility with international markets but Jean-Pierre de Raad of the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research, says the opposite: '2015 is no longer credible without drastic action' and that 'A new, credible target to return to surplus would need to be set to appease financial markets'. de Raad's No easy option to balance Government's books is a fiscal must-read. He also reviews the Government's options for dealing with the deficit, and suggests that attempts to cut spending will be very tough, and that there will now be even further pressure for public sector and welfare reform.

So why has the Government's forecast changed so quickly and 'what's happened to the sunny optimism of our PM?'. Labour's Grant Robertson suggests that we've all been taken for a ride: 'the PM is not campaigning any more, he is in office' - see: The Sad State of Key's Nation. Danyl Mclauchlan is also fairly cynical in his blog post, Nobody could have predicted . . ..

Tim Watkin's Pay rises in the Garden (city) of good & evil argues against the demand that Christchurch politicians bury their differences in the name of 'unity', suggesting it's better to debate out the important differences rather than sweep them under the carpet. He's scathing about Tony Maryatt's huge pay rise, cleverly likening it to 'the captain of that cruise ship in Italy getting off before the last passenger'. The idea that Maryatt might now forego his pay increase only if the elected politicians bury their differences is rightfully criticised: 'Who the jiggetty does Maryatt think he is? He's a servant of the council, not its nanny or conscience'. Further background on the complaints against Maryatt can be found in TVNZ's Chch Council meet as pay row escalates. Related to this, Joshua Drummond (That fantastic, superior breed) has a satirical look at how under-appreciated the modern Council CEO is, given their amazing abilities. Also, Cameron Slater raises an excellent solution to Christchurch's political row in his blog post, The case for recall. Slater's idea is actually a very important one in democratic political theory, and his proposal should be considered in this year's review of the electoral system.

The rebuild of the Labour Party is still being discussed widely. Today Claire Trevett (Labour MPs use caucus retreat to refine attack plan) reports that Labour has decided it's ministerial debating targets: 'Anne Tolley and Jonathan Coleman can expect to come under some pressure this time round'. On the more trivial but interesting point, she also reports that David Cunliffe's new beard is here to stay. But significantly, in his column, Labour yet to have its Kodak moment, Chris Trotter discusses the Labour Party's political branding and raises very good questions about what the party now stands for in the public's eyes.

Finally, there's two other important political items today. The Dominion Post's editorial, Is the Fonterra worm about to turn? provides further background and context to the Government's proposal for dairy industry regulation. The Dom Post suggests that it should be no surprise that a National Government wants to 'revisit a business that prefers its virtual monopoly' that was created by the last Labour Government. And Matthew Backhouse's NZ slips out of top 10 for freedom in the media is a must-read. The teapot tapes and other potentially authoritarian issues have shown the media's vulnerability in this country. New Zealand's Media Freedom Committee chairman Tim Murphy is reported as saying that 'erosions to media freedoms were creeping and incremental, and the public did not generally realise until there was "a reminder like this"'.