As if attempting a 1000-piece jigsaw, they will have a complicated picture of the past to guide them in putting together a new one for the future.
Almost everyone in the dairy industry save Goodman Fielder and some small start-ups hope the outcome will be less regulation but asking bureaucrats to deregulate is usually a forlorn task.
Logic would suggest Fonterra’s fall to about 80% of the milk market has created a viable competitive environment as the framers of the original Act intended with a sensible expiry clause.
But Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor wants the new review (about number seven in the history of the Act) to be a catch-all for the dairy industry’s structure.
Along with the priority items like open entry and exit and raw milk sales he has included environmental effects, domestic product pricing, value creation and “any unintended consequences”.
Hence the low likelihood of the eventual recommendations being for less regulation rather than more.
O’Connor said all the right things about Fonterra being the nation’s champion and how we all need it to succeed but he also said farmers will fiddle with the open entry and exit clauses at their peril.
A jigsaw picture of O’Connor washing his hands while giving Fonterra farmers what they want doesn’t appear likely.
Nor will his good friend Environment Minister David Parker be satisfied with umpteen different sets of nutrient limits for every catchment in every regional council.
Far better to write a National Policy Statement and clean up those rivers quickly.
Wide-open terms of reference invite an inquiry team to cast around for submissions and analysis to support pre-determined outcomes.
The fundamental question should have been “is the DIRA still required,and if so, in what form?”
Hugh Stringleman
