Tuesday, 23 February 2021 11:30

Great idea

Written by The Hound

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OPINION: Your old mate has long argued Landcorp’s farming business – Pamu – is a bigger dog than he is.

The state farmer’s latest result of $8 million for the half-year ended 31 December, 2020, shows its return on assets – managing 117 farms, 84 of which they own – makes it a terrible business for both the country and taxpayers.

However, a recent brilliant suggestion from North Otago farmer Grant Ludeman would kill two birds with the one stone.

He suggests that the Government order Pamu to completely destock all its farms and plant them in natives – making a huge contribution to decarbonising the country and meeting the CCC’s aim for a 15% reduction in NZ’s livestock numbers – as well as ridding the taxpayer of a poorly performing state business. Win, win!

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Civil Circus!

OPINION: It really is getting harder to lampoon government bureaucrats when they do such a good job of it themselves.

Anyone in the primary sector will know about the clowns covering the countryside in the red tape we all have to wade through.

Spare a thought then for media outfit Stuff who were threatened with fines up to $200,000 by a snivelling civil servant from the MoH for illustrating a quiz question with a photo of part of the cover of a 45-year-old copy Playboy.

As Stuff notes, “It wasn’t the Playboy cover which caused offence. No, it was the back page which… featured an advert for a cigarette brand”.

As Regulations Minister David Seymour notes, “The real scandal here is, well, no wonder we’ve got problems in healthcare when they’re doing the Stuff quiz during work time.”