After hyping the meeting, after Mikey chasing Miles down the street, after the news going live with the banner across the TV that the Fonterra meeting is underway, after all of that - nothing is happening because nothing can happen, because Fonterra's not ripping us off.
We're simply paying the same international price as everyone for butter, which Nicola knows because she's an intelligent woman and because she used to work for Fonterra as well.
So, nothing has come from the meeting. There is no announcement about what is being fixed. Miles Hurrell is not resigning or apologizing, and the price of butter is not dropping.
All that has happened is that Nicola Willis has fronted up for the media today and told them that Miles Hurrell will talk to them at some time soon to explain how the price of butter works, which is a nothing outcome.
In which case, you have to ask yourself the question, what was the point of the meeting?
If Nicola actually truly does understand the mechanics of butter pricing, and presumably then also understands that Fonterra isn't ripping us off and also had no plans to announce anything after this, why hype the meeting?
I can answer that question for you. Because she wanted to pass the buck.
She wanted to blame Fonterra, because National is feeling the pressure over the fact that Labour is now more trusted to deal with the cost of living crisis than National is - according to the Ipsos survey, which is out this month.
And because the heat has been cranked up on National, who have talked a very big game about getting the economy back on track - and yet 18 months in, it's still very much off track to the extent that people cannot afford butter.
Nicola tried to shift the blame from National to Fonterra and it didn't work.
Now, the lesson here is that performance politics doesn't work. Blaming the supermarkets but doing nothing, blaming Fonterra but doing nothing, blaming the banks but doing nothing, that kind of stuff doesn't work.
And in fact, it's risky, it runs the risk of backfiring, which is exactly what's happening here.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show HERE - where this article was sourced.
3 comments:
Nicola Willis achieved a similar result with the supermarkets. Like her boss, lots of talk and bluster.
Dear Heather. If you are such " a talented radio journalist", why do you not investigate just how NZ Dairy Exports function.
Fonterra is the end result of Dairy Factory amalgamations to create a NZ 'front' for our dairy Exports.
It replaced the former NZ Dairy Board, which essentially did the same work, then, as Fonterra does today.
Dairy exports from NZ have changed over the years, and we face the "frozen door of Europe (EU)" with quantity being exported.
That is why our NZ Trade Minister spends "quality time" on attempting to secure trade deals, dairy to the forefront.
China's take is miniscule and if the thoughts that India will come to the rescue, think again.
We have also had a time of 'surging productivity' within NZ Dairy, that led to many farms, then, being converted from sheep to Dairy, which sadly is now reflected in the sales of such farms either from - revenue issues, poor returns on milk produced, failings at end of year payout on milk fat subsidies, or lack of staff to manage the stock and associated functions of a dairy farm or owners have no family to pass on "the batten".
It has always been a "mantra Joe Public" across the years that we - The New Zealand Citizen" have subsidized dairy exports, with the cost we pay for buying said products at a supermarket, butter being a current example, cheese is the second.
It simply means, Fonterra's 'projected forecast of financial return on exports is not happening'.
The price of butter, from what I have seen in supermarkets has not stopped the purchase of same.
The bald fat boy does diddly squat so Willis got the hospital pass.
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