Clive Bibby: Priorities that work

 

One thing that is noticeable from the PM’s overseas junkets is that her priorities are not the ones that will save us. They never have been! 

At a time when the world markets are crying out for more of what we have to offer and are prepared to pay premiums for it, the prime minister’s travel diary is chocker block with meetings with those who have little influence or interest on whether we survive or disappear off the face of the earth. 

While meetings with Prince William, “Dastardly” Dan Andrews and Stephen Colbert may help to consolidate her ratings with those who regard her as the poster girl of woke politics, they will do nothing in comparison to that being obtained based on a strategic withdrawal from the negotiations of a EU free trade agreement. 

The reality is her signature on the deal will actually hinder future access to this important market and set the tone for other similar negotiations in markets that have huge potential but currently remain illusive such as India. 

In fact, from a New Zealand perspective, you would have to say, on that score alone, the whole trip has been an unmitigated disaster. 

Our trade negotiators might just as well have not gone to Europe at all. Better to wait until those countries sort out their own priorities for peaceful coexistence at a time when acceptance of greater tonnages of agricultural products we provide are seen in a less threatening light.

We need to reassess our place in a world beyond Ukraine. 

One would imagine that world will be a very different place, particularly for Europeans, once this war is over. 

My guess is that the supply chains for vital commodities will be hurriedly re-negotiated with allied countries rather than remaining dependant on the Russians or Russian controlled areas for essentials like fertiliser and gas. 

Thanks to the signing of the European FTA and the idealogical decision to limit and eventually close down our own urea producing facilities, we are likely to be in a position to regret having lost the opportunity to attach our sale of fertiliser to any future negotiations on access to the European red meat markets.

We must ask, how long will it take for the average voter in this country to wake up to the fact that our economy is being run into the ground while in the hands of people who have no understanding of or inclination to accept the realities of the modern world. 

Unfortunately, the “Feel good” doctrine won’t pay the bills when the shooting is over. 

It would be in all our interests if the PM and her ilk simply took her children’s books and utopian ideas and vacated the premises before they totally wreck the joint. 

Please go now!

Clive Bibby is a commentator, consultant, farmer and community leader, who lives in Tolaga Bay.