When will the Media start blaming the Government for Dairy intensification?

1. Winston two days ago blasted Jamie Mackay the NatZ political trumpet on the farming Show on RNZ Friday, and said Jamie why don’t you speak up for the Farmers who have no voice and Jamie said I don’t allow political punching here Winston and won’t allow you to use this program either.

   Then Jamie invited Key after onto the program to talk politics!!!!!!

   http://www.farmingshow.com/on-demand/audio/winston-peters-new-zealand-first-leader-090316/

   This was using the public broadcaster for his political speech but not Winston’s!!!

   We need Winston on Waatea to get some attention here.

2. Ironically those media so keen to pump Fonterra and take free trips to China are now breathlessly reporting what they should have done. Another example of the media on the take from big business and none worse than the Herald.

3. The media does not give much of a shit about those living on benefits, it does not care much about what lies behind crime and people who end up in prisons, it does not care much about the homeless in Auckland, it does not care much about what the government does and fails to do, so why should it suddenly care about polluted rivers that dairy cows urinate and shit into?

   The focus is rather on economic statistics and consequences, what the dairy price is, what farmers can earn or have in debt, I fear.

   It is the same with other focus groups, like the middle class property owners in the cities, keeping spending on borrowed money, that they can get easily due to their inflated house prices and easy credit from the banks.

   Only when the odd urban journalist may travel out of the city to actually do some kayaking or swimming, may they care to note the state of our rivers, other streams and lakes.

   Then the question is, will their editor consider this “newsworthy”, as it may not be click bait material.

   So I would not pin too much hope in the media shining more light on all this.

4. I think this is a brilliant example of the government having a go at “picking winners” among industries, and ending up “picking losers”. We already knew that subsidizing the diary industry doesn’t serve public policy goals in areas like public health or the environment, now we can prove (and many of us have been saying for some time) that it won’t even serve the narrow goal of economic growth. The total lack of any deep investigation by the commercial news media of National’s pro-dairy intensification propaganda is an equally brilliant example of how badly mass media (whether corporate-owned or state-owned) is serving us.

5. The government has just announced it is putting another 800,000 in the proposed Wairarapa irrigation dam – http://www.nzherald.co.nz/wairarapa-times-age/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503414&objectid=11604196

6. Under National a lot of land has been converted to dairying in areas where dairying is simply not sustainable without massive amounts of water that simply does not exist.
   Only the over inflated dairy prices made dairying in marginal areas (like parts of Canterbury) seem a good idea. Too many people thought the white gold would never lose its value, too many people forgot that National relies on boom and bust economy principles and doesn’t look very far ahead and is interested only in short term gains.
   If we had had sensible investment in dairying, instead of speculation we would be a lot better off, but National fuelled the speculation, promising the good times would never end.
   They have ended with a bump, with National walking away chasing the next speculative fix.

7. The OCR cut this week was to try and save the dairy industry while hoping it won’t build the housing property too much. This is desperate stuff.

   And it appears the Banks are not co-operating…

   David Tripe, an associate professor at Massey University, said the decision not to pass on the full cut was a reflection of the upward pressure banks were feeling on their funding costs.

   “The extra OCR cut is designed to counter the problems caused by rising costs.”

   Without the cut banks may have had to increase their rates putting more pressure on borrowers, particularly dairy farmers who are already under the gun with falling dairy prices.

   ref: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11603821

   Fact is that the rural sector is one of National’s core constitutents. Right about now, expect a sudden “emergency” or “get tough” swipe at beneficiaries/state house tenants/maori/crims, to distract peoples’ attention.

8. Once the value of dairy farms reaches 40% of their current value, and then land and assets are sold off to immigrants with treasure chests full of their government’s gold reserves, the compliant media will announce the following:

   “Rock star economy re-ignites as foreign investment floods into NZ – National heading for huge tax cuts to stimulate the economy further before 2017 elections”

   The script is already written, but Campbell Live has been knee-capped for being a ‘left-wing bastard’.

9. If Labour amalgamated with New Zealand First under the umbrella of the latter party name they would have the next election, hands down. If they want it badly enough it is that simple, as seen in Northland. The only reason NZF doesn’t win elections is because they stand in too few areas.

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