Mike’s Minute: Winston Peters isn't wrong, just late

I argued it because I thought it was the right thing to do.

Winston Peters entered the Fonterra brands sale debate yesterday, I suspect because he thinks there are points to be scored.

Not because he is wrong, because he isn't, but if you really cared about the sale that Fonterra has been involved with for some period of time, you might have stumped up a bit earlier.

In a way it's none of our business, neither mine nor Peters’. We aren't farmers and we don’t have a vote.

The people who do have a vote are in that process as we speak.

My guess is it will romp home and each farmer on average will be several hundred thousand dollars better off.

But there is also, as it's always been, the Fonterra social licence. Although the average punter doesn’t own them, or have a say, they are so big that their role in the New Zealand economy is outsized to the point that what they do has national implications.

I have always argued that their argument for sale is wrong.

There is, and never has been, any reason they can't and don’t run their brands successfully. They say it's not their core business.

Isn't it?

Milk turns into cheese and ice cream. Cheese and ice cream are the brands they are selling.

The French company, also in the same business as Fonterra, doesn’t seem to see it that way either, otherwise they wouldn’t be stumping up over $4 billion for it.

There is an agreement, and this is Peters' main point, that the new owner uses Fonterra products. But, says Peters, how long for, and when the clock stops, which it will, our milk will be in just another in a long line of milk jugs.

Peters tosses in a bit of conspiracy about Fonterra executives and bonuses. But that’s the politics of it all.

But then that’s always been the Peters way, hasn’t it?

At its core he makes sense. He values New Zealand and New Zealand products, so his view is consistent. But then there is always a little conspiratorial spice for the headlines.

If this sale was to be debated properly, far less halted, he needed to be front and centre ages ago.

So overall, the Peters' foray – good point, just too late.

Mike Hosking is a New Zealand television and radio broadcaster. He currently hosts The Mike Hosking Breakfast show on NewstalkZB on weekday mornings - where this article was sourced.