When a shop closes is it the government's job to mop it up? When a factory downsizes are they meant to do do something about it? Dairy is beyond the government's scope.
Opinion by Mike Hosking
Mike Hosking has hosted his number one Breakfast show on Newstalk ZB since 2008.
Listen live each weekday from 6am on Newstalk ZB.
From our mixed message file... comes Labour leader Andrew Little.
Andrew is spending the week trying to scare the bejesus out of us over dairy.
According to Andrew there is a crisis in dairy, farmers will go broke, the banks will bail on them and they'll need to sell theirland at which point the foreigners will pounce and come and sweep it out from under our feet.
Having said all that... And we can deal with the specifics of why he's out to lunch in a minute.
He then goes onto say in another interview that what this country needs is... You ready for it... More foreign investment... Hello?
He said this was a country built on foreign direct investment and more of it was needed.
What he wasn't asked and should have been was what happens if that foreign direct investment comes from people with names like Wang or Chow?
Now back to the business of all the farmers going bust and all the foreigners coming to snap the land up.
For a start banks work with farmers always have and always will.
When banks lend they know the risks.... That's why the banks here are pound for pound the most successful and profitable in the world.
Secondly in trying to stir this up into something it isn't, Little is using classic Labour party thinking in asking the government what they're going to do.
Why the government? What's a bloke buying a farm got to do with the government? What has any person setting up a business got to do with the government? When a shop closes is it the government's job to mop it up? When a factory down sizes... Is the govt supposed to do something?
Dairy, like all business products and markets is beyond a government scope.
A government is there to provide over arching policy direction... Like tax and trade deals and welfare.
It's not there to milk the cows, man the tills and set the price for commodities.
And even if farms go up for sale... And I think of the Crafar Farm as a classic example Under Andrew's thinking, we wouldn't be allowing foreigners to buy it or would we?
I can't work out which of his thoughts on foreign investments apply any more.
But lets assume he's against it... So what's the farm worth? Is it worth what a local as sanctioned by Andrew would pay for it... In Crafar's case nothing. Or is it worth what the highest bidder is prepared to pay in Crafar's case... From off shore and millions.
And what would Andrew rather have in his worst case scenario... A fire sale from a bank... Where the farmer is ruined... Or a good sale to a foreigner who pays a top price and invests in the operation.
Given the mixed messages I'm not sure Andrew knows the answer... And is he doesn't how would we?
