Key dispatched Joyce, his Mr Fix-it, to bang management heads together at Fonterra's Auckland headquarters. Photo / Richard Robinson
Unlike its management of some ongoing and by comparison trivial matters of state - such as the accessing of Peter Dunne's emails - the Government's handling of the Fonterra infant formula contamination scare is difficult to fault ... so far.
That assessment may yet change when the various official inquiries
start examining the regulatory role of the Ministry of Primary Industries in the dairy industry.
For now, however, John Key, Tim Groser, Steven Joyce and other Cabinet ministers have provided a textbook example of how to handle a crisis. Their competence has been further highlighted by Fonterra's gaffes and atrocious public relations.
The Government immediately realised the gravity of the situation, identifying the priorities for action and showing no compunction about exercising what in other circumstances might be deemed heavy-handed intervention.
The scare may not be in the same league as an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. Instead, Fonterra is a case of foot-in-mouth disease, such has been its various accounts of what exactly has been going on and which products are affected.
