Stop playing ignorant, it’s time to panic

It’s better to see the sky falling and for the Government to stop downgrading the crisis.

ARE you panicking over the massive fall in farm gate milk price payouts, the slow down of growth in the Christchurch rebuild, out-ofcontrol Auckland house prices, the effects of swollen immigration numbers, and what’s going on with the Chinese economy?

Nah, of course not because if we adopt the shoulder shrug, everybody just ‘‘chill and relax’’ attitude of Prime Minister John Key and the chief executive of Federated Farmers, Dr William Rolleston, the worst thing you can do is panic.

Panicking in a time of crisis – actually even to refer to the economic downturn as a ‘‘crisis’’ is apparently reckless talk that can lead to contagion.

We mustn’t put our finger up to the air and see which way the winds are blowing, or prepare ourselves for the economy about to go into a massive skid.

Such thoughts would be unpatriotic for we must remember that we are still far, far better off than others in distant lands and that it’s better to think positive, keep upbeat and think rock star instead of rock bottom.

According to Rolleston, it’s a time for cool heads because: ‘‘If people start panicking it would be a crisis.’’ It’s all in the way you hold your mouth, so we must remember to keep singing the glad song, be good and loyal Pollyannas and display ostrich-like behaviour and continue to stick our heads in the sand. Let us with a gladsome mind keep pretending that the Government’s decision not to diversify, to put all our eggs in the one dairy basket and make it the key driver of the economy was going to keep delivering the economic miracle forever and ever, Amen.

And now the evil day has arrived, there’s a worldwide oversupply and glut and we’re supposed to feel sorry for those who scrambled to get in on the white gold rush, didn’t think twice about the environmental ramifications of massive dairy conversions, are mortgaged up the tits and will be in the land of fiscal suffering and ouch for a very, very long time. That’s if they do manage to hang on and survive, which is unlikely with the prediction that 90 per cent of farmers will be affected.

And if farmers do go belly up and have to walk off their farms it will be open season for foreign owners to snap their land up at bargain basement prices, and we know how New Zealanders feel about that.

Finance Minister Bill English once referred to glowingly as the ‘‘financial wizard’’ said he was surprised by the fall in worldwide dairy prices and has asked the banks to be nice to the farmers.

The prime minister too has full confidence, every expectation that the banks will treat the farmers in the gentlemanly manner that businesses were treated in the GFC and will try their best not to push them into receivership.

Theo Spierings, chief executive of Fonterra, says that the latest $3.85 farm gate milk price payout forecast is unsustainable and that the co-op will be offering a support programme to farmers, especially to those wet-behind-the-ears new entrants to the paddock who didn’t foresee the volatility of the market. Good luck with that, from a co-op which is 80 per cent in debt and didn’t have the foresight to put money aside in the good times for last week’s Black Friday payout. Those new to dairy farming were apparently unaware of the cyclical nature of farming profits and never imagined in their wildest nightmares that it might come to this, that the last to get on the gravy train will be the ones to get pushed off at the first stop.

Sorry to be Chicken Licken, but it’s better to see the sky falling and for the Government to stop downgrading the crisis. This bumpy ride isn’t just another fairground attraction where our fortunes have been left up to the global market to decide, and the banks are to be relied on to keep their patience. The Government is who we look to in a time of crisis, not the financial institutions.