Memo to protesters - occupy a Crafar farm

SEAN PLUNKET

OPINION: Auckland's town clerk Doug McKay has finally earned his $600,000 plus salary and personally overseen what looks like the end of the Occupy Auckland this week.

Here in the capital we are still waiting for our council officials to step up to the plate and hit the 20 or so protesters left in Civic Square out of the park once and for all.

While the "Occupy" movement say they want a meeting on affordable housing and a council building to run their ill-defined campaign from, the time is long past for any sort of pandering to those who have abused the ratepayer's tolerance and patience for so long.

While the ruthlessly efficient spy car and legions of parking wardens enforce to the letter our parking rules, this privileged group has been given carte blanche to trample over any number of bylaws with ratepayers picking up the bill for extra security and council officials wasting their well-paid time consulting to find a solution.

What began as a local franchise of a global protest against corporate greed and income disparity has now degenerated into a loose consortium of homeless stirrers, anti-social activists and would-be revolutionaries who are doing nothing but causing a nuisance and costing this city money.

I have previously written in support of the protesters' right to make their disquiet at the state of the world known, but 100 days plus into their protest that message is in danger of getting lost as mainstream Wellingtonians wonder why they don't fold up their tents, go home and give them back their public park.

It is not that the Occupy protesters should stop speaking out against the woes of the world, just that this particular form of civil disobedience through freedom camping has grown a little tiresome for the rest of us.

It is not as if there are no good issues to focus on.

A TV poll this week showed 97 per cent opposition to the sale of 16 of the Crafar dairy farms to a Chinese-owned company for $200 million plus.

The Government received a recommendation from the Overseas Investment Office last week that cleared the way for the Chinese buyout.

While many cry racism at those who oppose the Chinese buyout, there are plenty who have rational and sound reasons for opposing such a deal.

They note there is no reciprocity with China regarding the purchase of land; they question the wisdom of allowing any foreign interests to acquire New Zealand farmland when the world's need for protein and the value of what that land can produce is skyrocketing. Several members of the New Zealand syndicate are iwi who seek to purchase land previously taken from them.

While the receivers clearly have a duty to maximise the return to creditors (largely overseas-owned banks) they could hardly be blamed for not doing so, if the Government had made the logical, popular and courageous decision to veto the sale in the national interest.

Prime Minister John Key himself has previously voiced disquiet about Kiwis becoming tenants in their own land, yet what details we have of the Chinese bid would see that precise outcome.

So my suggestion to the Occupy diehards: pick the nicest of the 16 Crafar farms to camp on, pack up your mung beans and your hacky sacks in your old kit bags and occupy some land to highlight an issue that really matters to so many New Zealanders.

Now I know there would be some downsides to this. You would lose that nice free wi-fi on the waterfront provided by all those nasty businesspeople you hate so much.

You might not get cellphone coverage so you couldn't use those flash phones made by those greedy exploitative multinationals you so despise and I guess you might not have access to the public toilets and other facilities paid for by we ratepayers who are such blind slaves to the "system".

But I for one would pay you a lot more attention and have more respect for your views if you did.

Given that the past 100 or so days have failed utterly to spark the mass movement for change you so want, perhaps it would be smarter to occupy something people truly care about.