Crafars A Lesson In How Not To Do It
September 16th, 2009
The dairying Crafar family was a source of acute embarrassment for Federated Farmers and the Fonterra Shareholders Council last week. Fined $90,000 for failure to manage effluent on one of their farms, the Crafars reacted by claiming they had been persecuted by regulators and cited previous similar convictions as proof. They then threatened to sell their multi-property empire, valued in the media at around $200m, to Chinese buyers, knowing the “dog-whistle” politics of citing Asian buyers for local farmland would resonate with media and have political impact.
However, for the farming lobby, the timing couldn’t have been worse. Federated Farmers was in politicians’ ears along with others lobbying for a soft ride for its members when the ETS is introduced so it doesn’t threaten NZ’s largest productive industries. And Fonterra is marching the halls of Parliament briefing on its capital restructuring plans, due out this Friday. The ante-diluvian look portrayed by the Crafars was far from helpful on either front in demonstrating a forward-looking and sophisticated sector.
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