If National wins ...

[elZorro]

EZ I think you need to do more research on the reasons for Sanford closing down the factory in Christchurch, before you make such unfounded claims. Here may be a good start http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=11426515

They are struggling with natural supply of spat due to unusually dry and warm weather conditions for some time and have committed $13M (out of $26M) into research that may well revolutionize the mussel farming industry in the very near future ! Isn't that the sort of thing you are always championing on here, spend on R&D !!

As for Winston, I said after he won that it would neautralize Andrew Little and make his job more difficult. I still believe it will and Little will regret handing the seat to Winston and thereby signing his own death warrant as Opposition Leader. Winston is astute enough politically to know that he is unlikely to win Northland again in 2017 if the overwhelmingly conservative people up there think that would lead to a Left wing Government of Labour, NZ First and the Greens !

Sanford are to be commended on this investment of course, but the payback seems to be very quick, it's 50% funded by taxpayers, this is not blue-sky research. It's almost a no-brainer that it should have been done a few years ago. The mussel factory in Christchurch would have chewed through $10mill or more in wages a year if they were fulltime jobs. So Sanford have come to the party a bit late. Freshwater prawns have been bred at Wairakei for decades, it doesn't look to be that different a process.

I see Bill English is saying that it might be hard to make a budget surplus this year. But that's OK, the good news is that the deficits are getting smaller each year. Brilliant! We have conveniently forgotten what it's like to make record government surpluses - that perhaps didn't happen -this is the new normal.

[winner69]

My son and his family come to my place from London regularly. The Warehouse takes a hammering for childrens clothes And dragging the adults out of the HB wineries is another difficulty. I also go there for lengthy periods and having paid for meals in restaurants both here and there, I know which is the cheaper - and its not London. My favourite was going to the Barnes fish and chip shop for a takeaway. Four bits of fish, two scoops and a couple of sausages cost me the equivalent of $72 NZ.There are bargains to be had in that neck of the woods but we couldnt live there on our current income.

Love your fish and chip story craic

Mine is in Grimsby of all places. Always go to the fishy with the longest queue. We did and got 2 packs of fish and chips. By the time we got across the road the paper had disintegrated. Even the sea gulls turned their noses up.

[elZorro]

I think all of us on this thread are very patriotic, some of us, perhaps, are following the wrong political party, but never mind.

I was pointed to this video presentation by the late Sir Paul Callaghan. Maybe I've posted it before, but it bears watching again. Inspiring, even if some of the companies have folded or changed hands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhCAyIllnXY

Now have a think about which political party is likely to help enable some of Sir Paul's ideas? We've gone backwards since this video was made.

[Daytr]

Craic, we have all the issues you mentioned, but we don't have to buy fuel to generate like most countries. If the government ensured that people producing surplus electricity were paid a better rate for putting it back in the grid it would encourage more solar & locally generated electricity where the demand is i.e upper north island. This would mean less money required for capex to increase transmission from the south island. Instead the government protects the big power companies, rather than encouraging more locally generated solar.

Once again, our power prices reflect costs per unit per household and comparisons with other OECD countries seldom tell you anything. We do not have nuclear power. We have a very small population, one fifteenth that of Britain. We have a country slightly larger than Britain with mountain ranges, Cook Strait, earthquakes etc. that they do not have. And there is plenty of room for individuals to reduce their reliance on the grid. You can even sell surplus power back to the company. My power bill is lower in winter because I have wood powered heating including water heating. One character I know never uses power to heat water. He lights a fire two or so days a week to heat his water for the week, even in summer.

[iceman]

Well it was so " Blue Sky" EZ that no other mussel farmer in NZ believed in it or put a cent in. I am amazed that you can not even give unqualified credit where credit is due, even when companies are doing exactly what you constantly bleat on about , companies not doing enough R&D. And again you are not being honest saying it is 50% "funded" by taxpayers. A research institute is a 50% shareholder in this project which is very different to the grants you want Government to hand out to all and sundry with no return. You obviously have a grudge against Sanford as you have made similarly ill informed comments before on this thread, about Sanford's main shareholders the Goodfellow family. Back then you half heartedly apologised for your inaccurate comments.

Sanford are to be commended on this investment of course, but the payback seems to be very quick, it's 50% funded by taxpayers, this is not blue-sky research. It's almost a no-brainer that it should have been done a few years ago. The mussel factory in Christchurch would have chewed through $10mill or more in wages a year if they were fulltime jobs. So Sanford have come to the party a bit late. Freshwater prawns have been bred at Wairakei for decades, it doesn't look to be that different a process.

I see Bill English is saying that it might be hard to make a budget surplus this year. But that's OK, the good news is that the deficits are getting smaller each year. Brilliant! We have conveniently forgotten what it's like to make record government surpluses - that perhaps didn't happen -this is the new normal.

[elZorro]

Well it was so " Blue Sky" EZ that no other mussel farmer in NZ believed in it or put a cent in. I am amazed that you can not even give unqualified credit where credit is due, even when companies are doing exactly what you constantly bleat on about , companies not doing enough R&D. And again you are not being honest saying it is 50% "funded" by taxpayers. A research institute is a 50% shareholder in this project which is very different to the grants you want Government to hand out to all and sundry with no return. You obviously have a grudge against Sanford as you have made similarly ill informed comments before on this thread, about Sanford's main shareholders the Goodfellow family. Back then you half heartedly apologised for your inaccurate comments.

Iceman, I have no grudge against Sanford, but any business that buys another operation and ultimately shuts it down with the loss of over 200 local jobs, should be scrutinised, just like Huttons was taken away from Frankton in Hamilton and amalgamated into other brands processed elsewhere. The video you posted makes it clear that the new spat will be genetically superior, and that this can open up new markets. At the moment the industry is reliant on wild spat washed up on North Island beaches. Or in other words, it's like running pastoral farming but where the only forage used was one grass species, and it was an old ryegrass cultivar.

This research work is long overdue, by the sound of it. MPI is funding half of it, Sanfords half, which may mean they will hold some of the IP, not the rest of the industry. Reason enough to put capital in, and of course there is a tax break on the spending too. I made the point that in view of the wages and presumably income from this industry, the net research cost will not be high, and it'll have a quick payback period. Yes, it's smart spending, but a pity it wasn't done earlier so that 200 workers and their families could continue to have a source of income. There might be further fallout in the mussel industry before it gets over the shortage.

All this adds to the pattern of manufacturing industries reducing in terms of the numbers employed, of fewer, automated and larger, new factories being used to reduce labour costs on average. This process is normal, but we need more smart manufacturing businesses starting up, in the regions and in the cities, to get our exports fully on the move, and for the good of the economy.

[Daytr]

I assume you are referring to the plant in Kaeo , Northland? That town has been decimated by the plant closure a few years back. Not sure it was 200 jobs lost, I thought it was around 60, but could be wrong.

[elZorro]

I assume you are referring to the plant in Kaeo , Northland? That town has been decimated by the plant closure a few years back. Not sure it was 200 jobs lost, I thought it was around 60, but could be wrong.

No, Daytr, I didn't know about the oyster factory in Kaeo, the main processing also shut down by Sanford in 2011.

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/oyst...actory-4590601

There are some parallels with the story in Christchurch, it is a manual operation and so won't be as automated as it could be. I would be drawing a long bow, and would be shot down in flames, if I suggested that the owner of these two plants waited for a shortage of product being available, to make a strategic decision final, that had been on the cards anyway. You're saying that the availability of seasonal work in Kaeo has been decimated by the closure, it's still noticeable four years later. That's what I mean. Why are not enough new enterprises stepping up to fill these gaps, in our 'rock star' economy?

More about the Christchurch factory's pay rates and redundancy package. You can't accuse the owners of this operation of being overly generous.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/indu...+11+April+2015

[RGR367]

I think all of us on this thread are very patriotic, some of us, perhaps, are following the wrong political party, but never mind.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhCAyIllnXY

Now have a think about which political party is likely to help enable some of Sir Paul's ideas? We've gone backwards since this video was made.

TY eZ for the video and I got nothing against it. By bet is that it looks like I'm always following the "wrong political party" everytime I try to air my views about politics

[Daytr]

Well even 15 permanent jobs in a small town like Kaeo is devastating enough let alone the seasonal work.