A well-measured response

There is no question that the Government had to take the threat to poison baby formula with 1080 seriously.

Its response was sealed by the presence of concentrated 1080 powder in the anonymous letters sent to Fonterra and Federated Farmers last November. Experts say the poison in that form would be difficult to obtain and highly unlikely to have been refined from the pellets dropped in pest control operations. Its presence elevated the threat above the crank letters frequently received in public office.

The fact the letters had a specific, if oddly distant, deadline of the end of this month to halt 1080 drops before infant formula was poisoned was another aggravating factor.

Some have dismissed the anonymous mailed threats as the work of a lone nutter. But the two recipients – industry bodies rather than government ones – show a more deliberate aim to cause damage to the economy, even if the formula tampering threat was hollow.

It left the Government in a difficult position – on one hand realising it was a likely hoax, but on the other taking no chances, particularly in light of previous contamination scares, where authorities were accused of doing too little, too late.

The equally difficult decision was whether and when to go public with the threats.

Going public too early with the details may have hindered police chances of a quick arrest. It would also have left the Government without the ability to reassure parents and trading partners with countermeasures such as improved milk powder testing and beefed-up security. Such a gap would have been fertile ground for criticism and, at worst, panic.

Not going public at all, particularly when a growing number of organisations would have to be alerted to the scare, would see it accused of a cover-up.

In the end the Government opted for the middle ground of revealing the scare as the deadline approached. In the absence of a quick police breakthrough, it is an understandable position, even with the potential trade impacts.

The hope now is that public help will find who is behind the pathetic letters. Whatever the motivation, there is no justification for holding a country to ransom.

There can be no

justification for holding a country to

ransom.