Wednesday, 20 December 2023 11:00

Tough times

Written by The Hound

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OPINION: The Hound reckons that Rob “I’ll be chair, I don’t care where”’ Hewett will be looking forward to the Christmas break more than most – despite being named chair of the year at a recent business awards ceremony.

That’s because the two farmer co-ops Hewett chairs have both recently reported losses for the past year.

Silver Fern Farms posted a massive loss of $98 million and the struggling Farmlands a $700k loss.

For the self-confessed big ‘Jacinda fan’ and supposed top-notch businessman this is a pretty poor record.

Meanwhile, it seems the trouble at Farmlands is not just around its poor bottom-line performance but the co-op’s whole business model.

Shareholders, suppliers and customers seem very upset with the direction and ‘reconfiguring’ the business. ‘Chairman Rob’ also has the ongoing disaster that is Wool Impact, which seems to have done bugger all.

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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.”