South Island economy 'rescued' by bailout

04 Sep 2010 09:09a.m.

Petra wrote:

If the government can bail out SCF, why doesn't the government buy Crafar Farms land? Look at the deal all the capitalists say is there in Crafar land and tell me why not. The farms were put in receivership last year owing over $200 million. Bill Ralston, who is acting as a spokesman for Natural Dairy, the Chinese firm who wishes to purchase the land, says benefits of the sale are too good to be ignored. He said the sale of the farms would add upwards of $200 million a year in increased export earnings, create 120 jobs, and pump $5 million into getting young sharemilkers onto farms. There we are, the farms cost around $200 million, but as Bill says you could make back $200 million a year plus creating 120 jobs and having $5 million to get young farmers into business sharemilking. So isn't spending around $200 million and getting it back in a year plus creating 120 jobs and getting young New Zealand farmers a leg up at least as good as idea as throwing over a billion dollars into the black hole of a failed finance company? National boasts of being good business people, if the numbers they're throwing around in the Crafar farm deal are as good as they say we'll all be seeing dividend cheques in two years.

01 Sep 2010 06:08p.m.

Andy Lewson wrote:

Love the way People on benefits get hell for their cost to our overall economy, but a 1.6 billion dollar cost to repay "mummy and daddy investors" doesn't bat an eye lid. This Government is bollix,as are the investors in SCF and I cant wait till this Government is gone.

01 Sep 2010 01:08p.m.

peter wrote:

The SI dimension to this is getting rather irritating. The south island economy does not depend on this. Some farmers might get caught in the crack but the fact is even if they were someone else would just buy the farms and run them - the loss would be all on some individuals, not the south island per se. They have not been loaning money for over a year so it is not as if access to finance has been cut off. But even if we lost absolutely all of the $1.7bill in the south island with nothing to show for it, thats $1700 per south islander and only a one off. The current government deficit shows we are losing more than $2000 per year on going, so lets get some perspective here - if this could kill the south island economy then the whole nz economy is getting killed on an annual basis. While I am on the topic I'd also like to point out that only 35000 south islanders are happy about this - the rest are just as hacked off as anyone in the north island