The sale of the Crafar farms must pose an awful dilemma for Winston Peters.
The leading bid for the 8000 hectares of farmland is $210 million from Shanghai Pengxin, a Chinese company.
Winston has spent most of the last 20 years railing against the Chinese. He has railed against Chinese immigration to New Zealand, he has railed against Chinese investment in New Zealand and despite being the foreign minister, railed against the 2008 free trade agreement with China (despite its having increased our exports to China by $3 billion and reducing our current account and trade deficits).
So clearly Winston would be against Pengxin being given approval to buy the farmland, despite offering the most money.
But look at who else is lined up to buy them. Sir Michael Fay leads a group which is offering $170 million for the farms - $40 million less than Pengxin. If Pengxin is turned down, then Fay will pick the farms up for $40 million less than the market price.
Now if there is one person that Winston Peters hates and rails against even more than the Chinese, it is surely Fay. Peters alleged all sorts of wrongdoings by Fay and Richwhite in the late 80s and early 90s, and this led to the Winebox inquiry.
Peters must dread the thought of Sir Michael picking the farms up cheaply, and selling them off again for a $40 million profit - just as he did with SOE sales in the 80s and early 90s. Even worse, Fay could break up the collection of farms into individual lots and sell them one at a time to foreign interests, as the smaller the size of the sale, the less likely it is to be declined.
So we should know in the next few days who gets to buy the Crafar farms - Shanghai Pengxin or Sir Michael Fay. I suspect that either way, the NZ First leader will not be very happy with the outcome.
What do you think? Should the farms go to the highest bidder or should they go to Sir Michael Fay?
David Farrar is a centre-right blogger affiliated to the National Party. His disclosure statement is here.
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They should go to Kiwisaver, appoint a CEO for the farms and return the profit to us ALL New Zealanders, come on where are the brains in this area? Or why not Landcorp pay the middle ground amount between the 2 offers? Surely we cannot let this happen, I am not against Chinese, but look what they have done to Mozambique, they purchased 300-000 very fertile acres + from corrupt officials at cheap cheap prices, and guess what 2000 Chinese are now living and intensively farming that land whilst the locals are displaced. Watch this space. Yet Michael Fay should have been stripped of his knighthood, he is such a hypicrite on this issue, happy 25 years ago to rip every Kiwi off now he wants more!
I think they should stay in New Zealand ownership, even if it does mean selling them for less.
no they should not be sold to any overseas intress go to china and buy 16 dairy farm i know what they would say NO go home i am not happy with this at all
To Sir Michael Fay.......on the understanding, that they cannot be sold to overseas 'investors ' at a future date!!!!!!! As WINSTON PETERS says WE DO NOT WANT TO BE TENANTS IN OUR OWN COUNTRY!!!!!
The main issue I see with the farms being sold to foreign interests (besides the blatant, racist fear of a yellow planet displayed by many) is the potential abuse of NZ's green image. When people think of NZ beef & lamb they think of cows happily munching in fresh green pastures on the rolling hills of Hobbiton. While this may be an exaggeration of a truth we do not want this image defiled. Many foreign investors may not understand the importance of this reputation and introduce intensive, unsafe, inhumane farming practices that harm not only that reputation but also NZ's special environment. Until regulations are put in place and policed we should be very careful who we sell such a large number of farms to, whether they be from NZ, China or Mars.
They should be sold as individual farms, not as a block and to people who reside in NZ.
Bulk ownership of farms is a very bad idea.
Why do you keep saying the local bid will get the farms for $40 million below the "market" price? No one in the world (except the Chinese Government who is putting up the money) thinks these farms are worth $210 million (and even the Chinese Government knows that too). Landcorp, the world's best corporate farmers, valued them at $150 million. The local group thinks they are worth $171.5 million. Talking "market" prices when you are talking the Chinese Government is mental.
I already choose not to eat any food stuff from China as they do not have proper health checks in place there, are we now going to get lower standards of food production within New Zealand? Our health bills are high enough in New Zealand without this. I am against farms being run by Chinese within New Zealand.
Waiting to see Winston standing at the gates of crafar farms with a big NO! sign... :)
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One thing about NZ First is it has the Nats shaking in their boots, can't wait until Winston gets to ask Key a few questions in parliament. Key is deadly afraid of Peters and it shows, the funny part is Wunston was dead right about the Winebox eh David