Nats To Talk With Maori Party Over Foreshore Bill

National May Negotiate With Maori Party Over Foreshore And Seabed

National Maori Affairs spokesman, Tau Henare, says the party is willing to talk to the Maori party about the Foreshore and Seabed Bill after the next election.

National’s caucus has decided not to support the Maori Party’s attempts to repeal the Bill which has led to the Maori Party saying National’s move could damage any possible support from the Maori Party for a National Government after the next election.

But Mr. Henare said today on TVOne’s “Agenda” that National would be prepared to discuss the issue with the Maori party.

“I think that come the next election there will be a chance for both parties… to sit down and talk about where they want to go.”

Mr. Henare said that he could understand the Maori Party’s disappointment at National’s move.

“I'd be angry too and I'd be disappointed but politicians tend to learn to get over that very very quickly and move on to the next the next issue,” he said.

“I think that come the next election there will be a chance for both parties and for other parties as well to sit down and talk about where they want to go.”

Mr. Henare was recently invited by Maori Party MPs to join them on a trip to Taiwan --- a trip that did not include any Labour Maori MPs.

“The thing is that you can't undermine the constituents out there, they thought it was a cool idea to have the Maori Party, end of story,” he said.

“We’ve gotta live with that, we may have to work with them.”

Another Nz Maori Mp Criticises Howard

Another New Zealand Maori MP is crisicising Australian Prime Minister John Howard’s plan to put the army into Aboriginal settlements.

National MP and party Maori Affairs spokesman, Tau Henare said today on TVOne’s “Agenda” that it wouldn’t have been the way he would have done it.

But Mr. Henare stopped short of agreeing with Maori Party MP, Hone Harawira’s description of Mr. Howard as a ‘racist bastard’.

“To call your neighbour all sorts of things doesn’t go down well in terms of neighbourly relationships,” said Mr. Henare.

Instead he said it would be better if New Zealand could offer helpful advice rather than insults.

“May be what we should be doing is going over to our neighbour… and having a yarn… may be he wants our help.”

RAWDON This week the Maori Party failed to get the political support it needed to send its Foreshore and Seabed Repeal Bill to select committee. The bill would allow Maori to seek ownership of the foreshore and seabed through the Maori Land Court. The Maori Party needed the National Party's support and questions are now being raised about the state of their relationship. Tau Henare is the National spokesman on Maori Affairs and he joins One News' political editor Guyon Espiner now.

GUYON ESPINER – Political Editor, One News

Well Tau Henare let's start there with the Foreshore And Seabed Act, I mean National opposed Labour's law back three years ago, why not support the Maori Party's bid to repeal it?

TAU HENARE – National MP

Because if you go back to the day before Labour enacted their view of the foreshore and seabed it's still an absolute mess and so what the Maori Party wanted to do was to go back to the day before Labour enacted their bill, their piece of legislation, and to us that would be basically you know taking the fish out of the water and putting it into a sandpit without any water, it doesn’t work, it's not going to work, so what you have to do and you can only – you can't do that through the select committee process, a private member's bill, I actually think it's a job for government, it's a job for a new government.

GUYON But National has been a party which has supported property rights, I mean that’s one of the traditional things that National has gone into that for, why not leave this up to the courts?

TAU Well why not leave this up to a government that’s actually aware of the issues and who wants to make a new start, let's have a look at it when we're in government.

GUYON Okay what about forming a government, I mean isn't this the sort of disagreement that shows that National can't work with the Maori Party.?

TAU Oh I think that’s rather a big step, rather a big call, it's disagreement absolutely, but it shouldn’t come as any surprise to anybody because back in February this year we had a three day caucus and it was announced then that we would not be supporting …

GUYON But they're very angry about it though aren’t they, you're right … but they're angry about it.

TAU Absolutely I'd be angry too and I'd be disappointed but politicians tend to learn to get over that very very quickly and move on to the next take you know the next issue, I think that come the next election there will be a chance for both parties and for other parties as well to sit down and talk about where they want to go.

GUYON Well that’s interesting so are you saying that this would be up for negotiation if you were to …?

TAU Oh who knows I mean I haven’t got a crystal ball, if they want to bring it to the table.

GUYON You would be prepared to discuss it?

TAU Oh look it's not only talking about that with the Maori Party it's talking about a whole range of issues with a whole range of political parties.

GUYON Let's talk about another one of those issues, the Maori seats, surely that’s a deal breaker, I mean if National wants to abolish the Maori seats the very things that those Maori MPs sit there in parliament on.

TAU Oh look absolutely, that is an issue that I'm sure will raise its ugly head again, we've said that we want to abandon the Maori seats you know when we've finished dealing with the Treaty settlements and I think it's actually quite a cool idea to link them both because you get over that grievance mode, but hey look you know when you sit down in coalition talks, and it's not only the Maori Party this will be with everybody, is there are issues that will pop up and you just have to be big enough and ugly enough to sort them out right then and there.

GUYON So are you committed personally to abolishing the Maori seats, do you think that the time has gone for ethnically based representation.

TAU If I wasn’t I wouldn’t be a member of the National Party.

GUYON But you came into parliament in the Maori seat didn’t you?

TAU Oh absolutely.

GUYON So what's changed?

TAU Well what's changed is one I'm a member of the National Party, two is that I've had the experience of being a Maori MP for a Maori seat, and I tell you what you get marginalised, you get put in a little box and people think that the only thing that you can talk about is Maori issues, now I'm not up for that any more, I think I've got something to say about education about housing about defence even and not within that little box of being a Maori, I don’t want to be marginalised any more.

GUYON We've talked a bit about coalition building I mean I think most people accept it's pretty unlikely that any party gets a majority you're going to need partners, the two most likely to be there in numbers for National would probably be the Maori Party and New Zealand First, which would you rather go with?

TAU Oh that’s a bit of a hard question, I mean at the end of the day I don’t really mind as long as we are working together on a plan that will take this country from where it is now to where it should be, I mean for goodness sake I mean we've had the best of times economically and somebody's had their foot on the brake and you know I just see that it's time for this lot, look at what they're doing, they're interfering in the public service, they need to go.

GUYON National's had a bit of a rocky road with Maori in recent years particularly under Don Brash, what did you think looking back now the dust has settled on the Orewa speech, what did you think of that speech?

TAU It's funny you say, you mention that, because a lot of what Don said in the Orewa speech one and two, have actually come to fruition, we've actually dealt with a lot of issues that were in the Orewa speeches, I mean like Maori representation, I actually – Maoris want what anybody else wants, good education, a roof over their heads and enough money in the bank for their retirement. So those are the issues that Maori want, hey everybody in New Zealand wants and I just think that because Don said something that may have pricked a lot of people's conscience we all got up in arms in about it. Look at the end of the day National has always been and will always be a party for everybody not just one sector of society.

GUYON Okay we're talking about race relations here in New Zealand, look across the Tasman for a second, what do you think of John Howard's policies in the Northern Territory to clamp down on sexual abuse of Aboriginal children by banning alcohol and bring the military in?

TAU Yeah, it wouldn’t have been the way I would have done it, but I don’t live there, I don’t know anything about….

GUYON Is he a racist, as Hone Harawira says?

TAU Yeah it's easy to say that eh I mean you know at the end of the day he's our neighbour, maybe what we should be doing is going over to our neighbour, jumping the fence with our neighbour and having a yarn with our neighbour. You know maybe he wants our help, maybe he wants advice who knows, but to call your neighbour all sorts of things doesn’t go down well in terms of neighbourly relationships.

GUYON What about your own relationship with your own party, I mean how do you see your personal ambition going forward, you have been Minister of Maori Affairs, is that a job you'd want back again?

TAU Oh most definitely, because I think it's been ruined over the last six or seven years by the other lot, by Labour. The only ambition I have really is to see the back end of this government and to see John Key the next Prime Minister.

GUYON I just wonder what you think of the development of the Maori Party, I mean previously we've seen Maori politicians work inside a mainstream party, is that a good development?

TAU Is the development of the Maori Party – oh look I mean I respect the constituents out there who thought it was a good idea to vote for the Maori Party. I take the opposite view now, I actually take the view that it's better to be in the big tent rather than the small little pup tent on the side.

GUYON Cos you had a crack yourself didn’t you in 1999 Maori Pacific?

TAU Yeah, failed dismally.

GUYON You learned a lesson there?

TAU Oh look I learned a lesson, and what we were trying to do and what the Maori Party is about I think are completely different and I do say congratulations to the Maori Party, look they have taken the bit and they’ve run with it, they’ve learnt a hell of a lot in the last 18 months and I think they’ve got heaps more to learn. The thing is that you can't undermine the constituents out there, they thought it was a cool idea to have the Maori Party, end of story. We've gotta live with that, we may have to work with them.

GUYON And you seem to have been working with them quite recently, you were over in Taiwan with the Maori Party, what were you doing over there?

TAU Well we were invited by the Maori Party, myself and Georgina along with Metiria from the Greens to really go over to have a look at Taiwan and the indigenous issue over there, and I didn’t even know there were indigenous people in Taiwan, so that was a real big eye opener. Hey it was good to be invited by the Maori Party, we had a good time and again thanks to the Maori Party…

GUYON And no one from Labour on that trip.

TAU No no, maybe they were too busy.

GUYON Let's bring in the panel here, John Roughan, do you think it's a good development to have a separate Maori Party?

JOHN ROUGHAN – Columnist, New Zealand Herald

Very good, good for the country I think and good for Maori certainly to have independent voice really, and we've seen that I think already in the way the Maori Party has performed in parliament, you know it's got a much bigger presence than I've ever seen Maori MPs have, but I'm interested in the possibilities of a truly independent party needs to be able to have a credible coalition prospect with both major parties, so National I think needs to give the Maori Party an idea of what it could expect to gain from a possible governing agreement with National. Where do you see Maori Party policies that National could actually live with, what are they?

TAU I think one of the first things that I would want to see on the table is Maori education, because that’s always been a key in terms of my life, in terms of what I want to see and I know that in the Maori Party there are experts in that party like Dr Pita Sharples, Ururoa Flavell, who've come from a background of Maori education and it seems to me that no one is actually taking the lead on it and I think there is real common ground there…

JOHN Is this particular Maori schools or Maori education in the mainstream?

TAU It's actually both, you’ve got mainstream schooling that really is failing dismally Maori students, and you know for the benefit of this nation is there's 15% of us that are failing dismally in the education service, if we don’t do anything about it and I don’t think things are gonna be too bright in the future.

JOHN And is there a policy on the table from the Maori Party that would do something about it?

TAU Oh look there are ideas, there certainly are ideas that I have, that the Maori Party have and I'd certainly love to sit down throughout this process between now and the next election say okay well where can we meet on some common ground.

RAWDON Brian can I bring you in here and just see if you’ve got something you want to talk about?

BRIAN FALLOW – Economics Editor, New Zealand Herald

I'm intrigued by this education ground I mean given what the National Party's saying about the need for greater fiscal discipline, can you actually address a really thorny and deep rooted problem like the one you just mentioned about under performance of the education to Maori, and deliver tax cuts and all the other things that you want to do, I mean are the dollars there for both deals?

TAU Oh look I think you can, I think in terms of – it's a bit like do you want to polish the bad stuff that we've got there or do you want to drain the swamp and start all over again, and I tend to think that you should drain the swamp let's start all over again, because this issue is an issue that has been going on for the last 25 to 30 years. I grew up in South Auckland in Otara it was an issue then and it seems to me that it actually hasn’t got any better and I want to be able to sit down with the Maori Party and whoever else that is on the scene and say look this is a huge issue let's come together let's put some policies in place that will really tidy up this mess that we've got.

BRIAN What would they be if there's not the resources what is there?

TAU Look you're talking about, well I'd certainly talk about in terms of Maori, Maori medium education I'd be talking about issues like bulk funding, I'd be talking about the quality of teacher in terms of Maori teachers I'd be talking about more male teachers and I'd also be talking about more maths science and English Maori teachers, are some of the things.

JOHN What prospect that Maori language could become far more generally taught in primary schools anyway?

TAU Oh look see that’s the – we have this idea that it would be great, I mean I think it would be fantastic but then take a step back and say well how many Maori teachers of Maori are there and are they capable and I think the answer is not. We've got a lot of people that can speak the language but can they actually teach and that’s where we have to get in and say okay if we're gonna have a programme of Maori language in primary schools let's not take away all the teachers that are working in Maori education at the moment, let's train some more.

JOHN Can you see National backing that policy?

TAU Oh I could see some real move on us making sure that whoever's teaching has got quality teaching, are quality teachers, if not they shouldn’t be teaching.

RAWDON And producing quality teachers is a bit of a challenge in itself is it not?

TAU Well I actually don’t think it's that huge a challenge, I think that what you need to do is start incentivising principals and boards of trustees to actually have quality teachers. If a teacher needs professional development fine but make sure that the professional development that they're gonna get is linked to what they are teaching not sort of you know Phys Ed or whatever.

JOHN On the foreshore and seabed do you think that the issue is finished now or can you really see a National government going back into it and trying to work out a new solution>

TAU I don’t think it's ended, I don’t think it's finished and I think that there are people in the National Party who want to see a comprehensive deal on the foreshore and seabed and that means taking into sort of issues like an oceans policy. You know at the moment you’ve got the Department of Conservation, you’ve got Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, you’ve got all sorts of you know local territorial authorities involved in the thing and it's time that we actually sat back and had a comprehensive look at this and you can't do it in opposition, you’ve gotta be able to do it when you're in government.

RAWDON Mr Henare thank you. Guyon we started with foreshore seabed we moved to party relationships we came to education, we came back to foreshore and seabed, what have you learned out of this?

GUYON Well I thought it was very interesting where we just left it actually that Tau Henare is saying that National would be prepared to revisit this thing, I mean you remember the scenes at the time, I mean you would have thought that National might have wanted to just quietly bury it because it's a very controversial thing, so it would be fascinating to see them come up and have another look at it. Also very interested in who ultimately takes the Maori Affairs roles for National, I mean you’ve got the shared spokesmanship at the moment between Tau Henare and Georgina Te Heu Heu, Tau Henare saying today he wants the job back.

FLOATING HIGH

Reining in the New Zealand Dollar

RAWDON Finance Minister Michael Cullen caused a stir this week when he raised the possibility of government intervention to bring down the New Zealand dollar. The stubbornly high dollar is hurting exporters but Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard is still expected to raise interest rates next week in another effort to combat inflation, joining me now is Dr Bollard's predecessor at the bank and former Chief Executive of the New Zealand Kiwifruit Authority, Don Brash, and Tony Nowell, Chief Executive of kiwifruit exporter Zespri, welcome to you both. Dr Brash I just want to start with you wearing your ex Reserve Bank Governor hat, what are your thoughts on Michael Cullen's threats to action Section 12 this week?

DON BRASH – Former Reserve Bank Governor

Well I think it was very unwise indeed and as Brian Fallow said earlier on your programme it almost puts Alan Bollard in a position where he has no alternative than to raise rates this coming week to make it quite clear that he's not being leant on by politicians. Michael Cullen has two very important responsibilities or three, one is to keep out of Alan Bollard's hair, second is restrain government spending which is one of the things stimulating inflation and the third is to do things which would lift the speed limit if you like on the New Zealand economy by fixing the Resource Management Act, fixing infrastructure and so on, because we've seen the productivity growth in the New Zealand economy declining over the last few years and that makes Alan Bollard's job of keeping inflation under control that much more difficult.

RAWDON Do you think Michael Cullen's comments have changed the way Alan Bollard's thinking this week?

DON Well I think it has because as Brian Fallow said if a Minister of Finance says I'm thinking of changing the rules under which Alan Bollard works just weeks since he signed a new agreement with Alan Bollard requiring him to keep inflation under control, Alan Bollard really has to demonstrate his independence of that political pressure.

RAWDON Do you think there's any way he wasn’t going to raise interest rates, assuming he will?

DON My own guess is that the data would encourage him to do that, I've been careful not to tell Alan Bollard how to run the monetary policy you know he's got enough pressures on him without me telling him what to do, but the general perception of the market is that domestic inflation which has been stuck at about 4% for the last three or four years is still not under control and that until he gets that under control the exchange rate's gonna remain high.

RAWDON Mr Nowell can I bring you in here, there's been a lot of coverage this week of how the meat and the seafood industries have been suffering, how hard is it for the kiwifruit growers?

TONY NOWELL - Chief Executive, Zespri

Well it's very very difficult at the moment, currently the kiwifruit growers are around 140 million dollars behind where they were last year, if we weren’t hedged that would be hitting them right in the pocket. Our hedging actually reduces that to about 92 million dollars of effect at this point in time, so very significant.

RAWDON` Which puts you in an interesting position as a kiwifruit grower plus somebody who's committed to keeping a hat on inflation what are your thoughts about the kiwifruit growers' position.

DON Well as you say I am a kiwifruit grower, I have an acute understanding of how much pressure exporters generally are under because of the high exchange rate, but you don’t help exporters in the long term by letting inflation get out of control. We learnt that in the what 20 years we had high inflation through the 70s and first part of the 80s, so I'm strongly in favour of keeping inflation under control and the exchange rate will remain high until the market can see that domestic inflation is licked and the next interest rate movement will be down.

RAWDON Why not let inflation just edge up a little bit, bring the dollar down, give exporters a breathing space.

DON No, no, I doesn’t help exporters. I mean we're lamenting the fact we've got an exchange rate at 80 cents, most of the post war period the exchange rate was $1.12 to the US dollar briefly $1.48, now we can't survived at $1.12 now, probably most exporters can't survive at 80 cents now. Why can't we do that – because inflation in New Zealand has been higher than in other countries.

RAWDON Mr Nowell do you agree with that?

TONY I agree entirely with that, we are already the highest cost producer of kiwifruit in the world although we are the market leader world wide, why do we succeed because we've got a very high price premium for our product, but what we absolutely don’t need is increased cost here in New Zealand. Labour rates going up, transport rates going up, whatever, is going to simply put more and more pressure on the industry.

RAWDON So as an exporter you're supportive of where Mr Bollard is heading?

TONY I'm supportive of maintaining inflation at the current levels or less I would hope, yes I can concur with Dr Brash that maybe a shock is required in interest rates to actually get that dollar heading downwards, ultimately we do need the dollar to go downwards, but you know currency goes up currency comes down, inflation goes up it's gone up you can't get it back.

RAWDON So we have a complete consensus here that the one key here interest rates have to go up this week, inflation has to be capped?

JOHN Yeah I think so

BRIAN I think so yeah, it's a short term versus long term issue and things possibly have to get worse before they can get better, but you know Tony's point as well made about how bad they are out there, there's really only one segment of the export sector at the moment mainly dairy farmers who aren’t suffering with these levels of the exchange rate and I'm sure Dr Bollard understands that acutely, but it's completely counter productive in this environment to say well maybe we should change the rules of the game at this stage, this is the point where he has to get seriously ugly and look scary to the people who set domestic prices.

RAWDON And even if he was wanting to look scary and look ugly has Mr Cullen now taken the edge off that?

BRIAN Well the danger is that behind his shoulder you see Dr Cullen saying well maybe you know inflation isn't the worst thing in the world maybe we'll change the rules you know, it sends a very mixed message to the people who need to get only one message at this stage which is don’t push up your prices.

JOHN If foreign investors really did take fright at the sign of the New Zealand government wavering like this what do you think would happen, in what way would the dollar fall and what would the consequences be?

DON Well if they really did take fright the currency would certainly fall quite sharply and two things would happen, first of all inflation as measured would go through the roof because domestic inflation's already 4 the total inflation figure of 2 is made up of 4% domestic and negative inflation on imports, so if we no longer have negative inflation driven by the exchange rate we have a much much higher CPI and secondly if foreigners said we're not gonna fund your deficit any longer interest rates go through the roof. At that point we have a very ugly situation indeed.

JOHN What chance do you think there is that they would actually make that decision that Cullen's ploy might work and he might actually dent their confidence in the government's scheme.

DON Well so far he hasn’t because I think people do think he's bluffing and we certainly hope they're bluffing as you yourself said in this morning's Herald, I mean it would be very serious indeed if he was not bluffing, it would destroy an awful lot of good work which has been done over the last 20 years.

RAWDON Tony you came to Zespri in March so your eyes must have been open to this as being your big challenge, has it exceeded your expectations as far as a difficult issue to deal with?

TONY Oh absolutely no question about that. We walked into a budget year with 67 as the number we were looking at for currency and we're now sitting practically at 80 so huge impact on the business, obviously a big big challenge, how do we face up to that challenge, we have to of course maintain that premium price that we've got out there and we're doing very well with that at the moment. If you look in Europe at the moment where we have strong competition from Chilean kiwifruit which is in the same southern hemisphere seasonal window we're selling for up to a 90% premium over Chilean product. If we can maintain that we're in okay shape, any degradation of that premium and it's a very slippery slope for us indeed.

RAWDON What currency do they sell in in Europe?

TONY They sell in Euros.

RAWDON In Euros, so you’ve also got the Italian markets stockpiled and they're not seasonal are they?

TONY That’s right, the Italian market of course is in the counter season they're coming on stream shortly but you know the Italians are getting better and better at growing kiwifruit and storing kiwifruit, we've had Italian kiwifruit in the European market right through until this month which is the first time we've ever seen it in there in July so competition us strengthening in Europe.

RAWDON So how do you do this I mean you can't cut costs from the fringe costs of promotion marketing can you?

TONY Look the big cost chunks if you like in the kiwifruit industry are obviously on the orchard, and you know you have to managed your product, you have to use your sprays at times to control pests, you can't do without those, take those away we don’t have a saleable product, the post harvest sector you know where we grade and pack the fruit is a big chunk of cost as well, shipping is a big chunk of cost but we have a natural hedge on shipping because we pay it in US dollars, so that’s a non issue really in this respect.

RAWDON So the bottom line is the only way to cut costs is to work harder?

TONY To work harder because if you cut back on your promotional spend your marketing spend that price premium will go downhill.

JOHN Have you increased prices as the dollar has risen?

TONY We've certainly increased prices in Asia but the competitive situation in Europe at the moment is such that we've had to hold price at this point in time. I do see an opportunity coming up next month for price increases to be taken in August, what you hit in Europe at this time of year and anywhere in the northern hemisphere of course is the summer fruit crop so all the melons the mangos etc coming through, kiwifruit sales always go into a bit of a slump in July and August, but later in August they come on. This year northern Europe the weather conditions are foul quite frankly and summer fruit sales are very poor, so margins are very low for summer fruit sales because they can't move the product, I think that opens an opportunity for kiwifruit coming through into August September.

BRIAN Tony is Europe your biggest market?

TONY Europe and Asia are about neck and neck, Europe's slightly ahead.

BRIAN The reason I ask is that against the Euro the New Zealand dollar isn't very different now than it was 18 months ago.

TONY No we currently sell about 60% of our product in Euro denominated to sales around 30% in Yen and in fact only 10% in US dollars, so US dollar is not the big bogey for us, Yen certainly is, no question about that, but you are right, the damage for the kiwifruit industry is mitigated if you like by the fact that we do have 60% of our dollar sales if you like or Euro sales in Europe.

DON As a grower I'm very pleased to hear that.

RAWDON Brian can I just ask you, 80 cents has been this band which has been sat up there for well several months I suppose is that not something to be celebrated, some people have been saying that it's hit 80 cents let's raise our hands.

BRIAN Well a high exchange rate is good for all sorts of people including drivers because petrol is cheaper than it would otherwise be, consumers buying imported goods but also manufacturers buying imported raw materials and capital equipment and so on, like any form of you know there are winners and losers in these games, it's just that the same group of people have been winning for rather too long and the same group of people have been losing for rather too long in this big imbalance that’s doing structural damage I think to the economy, it is very important to get the underlying problems down under control.

JOHN That’s what I said this morning it should be celebrated but that’s in principle that a high exchange rate should reflect a wealthy economy, an economy that can afford the best that the world can supply it with, and we're enjoying that at the moment but we're enjoying it because we have to pay interest rates to counter inflation that we shouldn’t be having. So we have to deal with that problem really.

RAWDON How dependent are we on the green back in this situation, I mean to me I read it that that’s the controlling factor here until everyone else or the world tends to start adopting another major currency to attach themselves to, that whatever we try and do here we've really gotta play a wait and see game on the American economy.

DON Well certainly the US dollar has been weakening against most other currencies and as I think Brian pointed out we haven’t been moving much up against the euro or against the pound, against the Australian dollar the movement's been relatively moderate in the last 12 or 18 months. We've seen big movements against both the US dollar and the Yen and the US dollar of course has been going down against almost all currencies even the Cambodian real I discovered when I was in Cambodia recently. So we're facing a situation where what's driving our currency is partly US dollar weakness, partly the boom in dairying which is making people confident about the New Zealand economy and partly the interest rates being driven by the fact that everybody can see domestic inflationary pressures remain strong.

RAWDON What effect do you think the predicted payout on Fonterra will have this coming week?

DON Well certainly that’s an additional factor, Alan Bollard has talked about that as one of the two or three big factors driving demand of the New Zealand economy, but let's celebrate that fact, I mean we should be pleased that the exporters in the dairy sector at least are doing very well and I'm certainly very glad about that, New Zealand is better off because of that, but precisely because that stimulates activity in the dairy sector and the New Zealand economy's already stretched there has to be scope created for resources to move out of what they're doing now to expand the dairy sector.

RAWDON Dr Brash, Mr Nowell, panellists, thank you very much.

ENDS

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