"Our" business?
OPINION: One particular bone the Hound has been gnawing on for years now is how the chattering classes want it both ways when it comes to the success of NZ's dairy industry.
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says a wide-ranging review of dairy industry legislation isn’t an attempt by the Government to force changes to Fonterra’s constitution.
He says the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) review doesn’t say anything about the constitution. Fonterra’s 10,000 farmer shareholders will ultimately make a judgment on the constitution, O’Connor told Rural News.
The minister was grilled last week by Federated Farmers dairy leaders at their annual conference in Wellington; they questioned him about the DIRA review and recent attacks on Fonterra leaders by cabinet minister and NZ First MP Shane Jones.
O’Connor says how Fonterra is managed is up to its shareholders, but he had a bold message for shareholders: “if you don’t discuss it, we will”.
When Fonterra was set up in 2001, a draft constitution was part of the approval process. O’Connor notes changes have been made to the constitution over time.
“Farmers have to work whether those changes to the constitution have worked positively or negatively,” he says.
O’Connor forsees the DIRA review “tweaking legislation to ensure Fonterra is fit for purpose”.
However, Opposition agriculture spokesman Nathan Guy says the terms of reference for the DIRA review “are very wide and a moving feast”.
Guy says O’Connor isn’t ruling out changes to Fonterra’s constitution.
“This isn’t written anywhere in the review document,” Guy says.
“After Shane Jones’ outburst this will be seen by farmers as the Government wanting to meddle further in the co-op’s business. There is already a lot of suspicion about this wide-ranging review and Fonterra farmers are becoming weary of this Government’s agenda.”
Federated Farmers leaders are taking a wait-and-see approach on how the DIRA review pans out.
Alliance has announced a series of capital raise roadshow event, starting on 29 September in Tuatapere, Southland.
State farmer Pāmu (Landcorp) has announced a new equity partnership in an effort to support pathways to farm ownership for livestock farm operators.
Following a recent overweight incursion that saw a Mid-Canterbury contractor cop a $12,150 fine, the rural contracting industry is calling time on what they consider to be outdated and unworkable regulations regarding weight and dimensions that they say are impeding their businesses.
Trade Minister Todd McClay says his officials plan to meet their US counterparts every month from now on to better understand how the 15% tariff issue there will play out, and try and get some certainty there for our exporters about the future.
Brett Wotton, an Eastern Bay of Plenty kiwifruit grower and harvest contractor, has won the 2025 Kiwifruit Innovation Award for his work to support lifting fruit quality across the industry.
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