Dairy Me

Shane Jones’ latest corporate tongue-lashing is more than mere bluster.

- Jane Clifton

Here we go again. Yet another politician who has merely skim-read Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. Not finding anything from the master 6th-century BC general against conducting one’s pre-battle sledging in the manner of a hyperactive toddler, Shane Jones has continued his crusade against big companies that displease him by saying, in effect: “You’re a big poo-bum and my mother’s gonna give you a hiding.”

The recipient of paddywhacks thus far is neither Air New Zealand nor Fonterra, but Jones himself. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has at least twice told her Regional Economic Development Minister that although he is, of course, free to criticise companies that don’t act in New Zealand’s best interests, his implied threats to executives’ and directors’ jobs are way out of line.

That Jones’ leader, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, has smiled on approvingly, has been widely interpreted as cheap sabrerattling, as New Zealand First tries to shore up its withering vote.

There is a big dollop of vote panic and vanity in Jones’ antics. But his purpose, believe it or not, is way more significant than that. As Peters signalled the night the Government was formed, NZ First is concerned about the state of capitalism, and the lack of fairly functioning markets in this country. Global giants such as Google and Apple have, as in other countries, achieved near-monopoly dominance with little accountability, and many of our domestic markets are uncompetitive. People are feeling done over by big business.