By: Mike Hosking | Monday, April 23, 2012 9:04 AM

Can we just tick off a few of the ironies in this Crafar deal. Some of the absurdities coming from those who think it's a disaster, an open door for foreign invasion, the start of the slippery slope.

 

Firstly, the irony that we are the best farmers in the world. This is broadly true although not an exclusive claim given the only reason the farms were ever for sale was the bloke who owned them ran them into receivership. Which is not to be mean to Mr Crafar, just to point out that just because you’re a middle aged white bloke from New Zealand, doesn’t give you a God-given right to be a genius on the land.

 

Secondly, the claim by Michael Fay that the successful bidder is a construction firm, and what do they know about farming? Is this the same Mr Fay who as a merchant banker bought New Zealand Rail?

 

Thirdly, once you sell it you never get it back - who says? Land is always for sale and is turned over many times. If it’s so grippingly important to keep it all in local hands, why didn't someone local buy it? Why are we complaining about foreign investment being bad when we have had every opportunity to purchase the place ourselves? Both the Government and Fay’s opening bids were low and beyond that no one was interested.

 

Why don't we start being a bit honest about this. This isn’t about foreign investment, it’s about Asian investment which is the ultimate irony. We’re perfectly happy to ride the coats tails of their economic success. We want free trade deals and sales. We want their wealth and growth. We’re more than happy to be aligned with the Asian region. We’re perfectly happy to be seen as part of one of the most successful trading blocks in the world right now.

Yet the vocal minority still can’t get over the xenophobia. The Chinese own virtually no land in this country. There is less land sold to foreigners now than there has been for years. Of all the foreign owners of land in this country, the Chinese aren’t even in the top 15 yet they buy a couple of farms and all hell breaks loose. That's called racism.

 

This country makes its way in the world by trading. You don't trade down a one way street and you don’t trade successfully by treating people badly. The Crafar deal is about a thousand times bigger than it needed to be.

 

Certainly you check the investors out, you look at what they bring to the table, you hold them to account on their promises. What you don’t do though is lock them out, or worse, form and opinion based on skin colour.