Good to see the Greens coming out with a relevant, populist message at the weekend’s conference by tackling the issue of food affordability. The Greens have great policies but far too often they’ve got themselves bogged down in the detail and been seen by voters as irrelevant on hip-pocket issues.
But while the challenge to Fonterra is good for the Green brand don’t expect it to make any difference to the price of dairy. As Fisher & Paykel has shown us, businesses exist to maximise returns to their shareholders, not to show the public they’re “a good Kiwi company.” To change the behaviour of business you need to regulate, and that’s something that was noticeably missing from the Greens’ message.
The Government’s reaction was worse than disappointing. I’ve come to live with the Government’s tendency to be timid and defensive when under attack but the last thing I expected was to hear Jim Anderton advocating trickle-down theory on Morning Report.
Empty rhetoric or more of the same? Sometimes it’s hard being a leftie. Thankfully the rest of Jeanette’s speech has some answers.
[Hat tip: frogblog]
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