Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Why did Nicola Willis hype the Fonterra meeting?

So guess what's happening after Nicola Willis' butter meeting with Fonterra last night? Nothing.

After hyping the meeting, after Mikey chasing Miles down the street, after the news going live with the banner across the TV that the Fonterra meeting is underway, after all of that - nothing is happening because nothing can happen, because Fonterra's not ripping us off.

We're simply paying the same international price as everyone for butter, which Nicola knows because she's an intelligent woman and because she used to work for Fonterra as well.

So, nothing has come from the meeting. There is no announcement about what is being fixed. Miles Hurrell is not resigning or apologizing, and the price of butter is not dropping.

All that has happened is that Nicola Willis has fronted up for the media today and told them that Miles Hurrell will talk to them at some time soon to explain how the price of butter works, which is a nothing outcome.

In which case, you have to ask yourself the question, what was the point of the meeting?

If Nicola actually truly does understand the mechanics of butter pricing, and presumably then also understands that Fonterra isn't ripping us off and also had no plans to announce anything after this, why hype the meeting?

I can answer that question for you. Because she wanted to pass the buck.

She wanted to blame Fonterra, because National is feeling the pressure over the fact that Labour is now more trusted to deal with the cost of living crisis than National is  - according to the Ipsos survey, which is out this month.

And because the heat has been cranked up on National, who have talked a very big game about getting the economy back on track - and yet 18 months in, it's still very much off track to the extent that people cannot afford butter.

Nicola tried to shift the blame from National to Fonterra and it didn't work.

Now, the lesson here is that performance politics doesn't work. Blaming the supermarkets but doing nothing, blaming Fonterra but doing nothing, blaming the banks but doing nothing, that kind of stuff doesn't work.

And in fact, it's risky, it runs the risk of backfiring, which is exactly what's happening here.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ever duper see Ellen. So guess what's happening after Nikola
Willis's butter meeting with Fonterra last night. Nothing After hyping
the meeting, after Mikey chasing Miles down the street, after
the news going live with the banner across the TV
that the Fonterra meeting is under way, after all of that,
nothing is happening because nothing can happen because Fonterra is

(00:21):
not ripping us off. We're simply paying the same international
price as everyone for butter, which Nicola knows because she's
an intelligent woman and woman and because she used to
work for Fonterra as well. So nothing has come from
the meeting. There is no announcement about what is being fixed.
Miles Hurral is not resigning or apologizing, and the price
of butter is not dropping. All that has happened is

(00:42):
that Nikola Willis has fronted up for the media today
and told them that Miles Hurral will talk to them
at some time soon to explain how the price of
butter works, which is a nothing outcome, in which case
you have to ask yourself the question, what was the
point of the meeting If Nicola actually truly does understand
the mechanics of butter pricing, and presume then also understands
that Fonterra isn't ripping us off and also had no

(01:03):
plans to announce anything after this meeting. Why hype the meeting?
I can answer that question for you, because she wanted
to pass the buck. She wanted to blame Fonterra. Because
National is feeling the pressure over the fact that Labour
is now more trusted to deal with the cost of
living crisis than National is according to the EPSOS survey
which is out this month. Because the heat is being
cracked up, cranked up on National, who have talked a

(01:24):
very big game about getting the economy back on tracking,
yet eighteen months in it's still very much off track
to the extent that people cannot afford butter. Nikola tried
to shift the blame from National to Fonterra and it
didn't work. Now, the lesson here is that performance politics
doesn't work. Blaming the supermarkets but doing nothing, blaming Fonterra

(01:45):
but doing nothing, blaming the banks but doing nothing. That
kind of stuff doesn't work, and in fact it's risky.
It runs the risk of backfiring, which is exactly what's
happening here. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
live to News Talks at BEE from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio