Dairy Farmers of New Zealand (DFNZ) Chairman Charlie Pedersen said today that the DFNZ's recent Australia-based AGM and Study Tour of the Victorian dairy industry was a huge success. "The Australians admired our pragmatic approach towards the formation of Global Co," said Mr Pedersen.

Mr Pedersen had been invited to give a keynote address to the United Dairy Farmers of Victoria (UDV) annual conference and built upon that invite by transporting his own AGM to Shepparton, Australia, to run contiguously with the UDV.

"The positives from the exchange of ideas and views, and the increased understanding of each other's industry will benefit both dairy industries well into the future," Mr Pedersen commented.

However Mr Pedersen warned that he felt uneasy at the praise the New Zealand dairy industry received for its pragmatic drive towards the formation of Global Co.

"It is obvious that some dairy industry leaders are dragging the chain and insisting on a longwinded "let's go down every side street" approach."

"There are only a few days left to pick up the legislative process Government has provided. If our leaders don't treat the situation with the respect it deserves, then as the only NZ dairy farmer lobby group, it will become our responsibility to drive the process for farmers," warned Mr Pedersen.

"While we would be reluctant to do this the dairy company constitutions are constructed so that farmers can take matters into their own hands if Directors are sufficiently out of step with farmer wishes," Mr Pedersen concluded.

ENDS

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>