The "Maori Wars" were renamed the "New Zealand Wars" in the interest of political correctness, and now we see the beginning of the New Zealand Milk Wars.
Whatever we like to call them, the "New Zealand Wars" were hardly anything positive. Hopefully the New Zealand Milk Wars can have a more positive outcome.
Fonterra was created in October 2001 out of the New Zealand Dairy Board and two dairy cooperatives. The purpose of this was to create a single company to manage New Zealand's larges export, dairy products. It is not working well.
The problem we got now is that Fonterra has become another "Telecom" monopoly. A near monopoly that survives on its dominance, financial and legal muscle, and much less on its competence and ability to compete. It is slowly proving to become a loosing formula for New Zealand, and controlling farmers income and wellbeing, even survival.
While Fonterra is a near single face outwards for New Zealand dairy export, it has also become a monopolistic plug for developing a loosing New Zealand market share of the world, with a disastrous trade balance development. Fonterra make it very difficult for emerging New Zealand new entrants to develop and sell new products and develop new markets on the increasingly protective and competitive world market.
We may be excused for wondering what Fonterra is hiding and why. Why have Fonterra used legal intimidation to cover up the inside story of the China melamine disaster, why did they cover up the latest melamine scare in February this year, why did the cover up the information that Fonterra allegedly had approved melamine as an additive, why was the information on melamine contaminated dairy protein lactoferrin from Morrinsville-based Tatua quieted down, why was the alleged $640,000 'cover up' leaked memo over poisoned babies covered up, why did Fonterra threaten a $17 million law suit against a Sri Lankan newspaper over an article alleging contamination, and why are they continuously using legal intimidation to force publishers to pull any uncomfortable news?
The "inside story" of the melamine disaster was published in New Zealand Scope, but soon pulled off the web after a Fonterra intervention, the article alleging Fonterra paid off customers to keep quite was pulled within hours from the Chinese QQ web site.
The Chinese authorities have put the Fonterra melamine disaster behind them, but the Chinese public definitely has not. There are too many unanswered questions, and the public in China are suspicious in the light of how uncomfortable news has been handled in the past in China.
Apart from appointing people to represent Fonterra that obviously were not even near competent for the job, on the surface it seems that Fonterra have done things right in China and in line with Chinese law and tradition. It appears the Kiwi directors quietly or actively approved the melamine as an additive as they did not understand what it was, much less the effects it would have, but Fonterra probably accepted culpability, and in line with Chinese justice culture compensated the Chinese with an $8 million donation. That would have kept the Kiwi directors out of the courts and any punishment. Chinese justice still works in the old "father and son" ways, "if you prang the widow, you fix the window, and if you do we forget that it ever happened".
While New Zealand justice has a major focus on punishment, not to say revenge, the Chinese justice culture have a hard focus on the victims and on rehabilitation and re-education of the offender, whatever the offence was deliberate, by ignorance, or incompetence. You admit your wrongdoing, and work to do it right, it replaces the western punishment.
The new emerging Dairy company Oceania Milk was originally going to be called The New Zealand Milk Company, but, as so often is, Fonterra stopped them with legal intimidation.
Competition is well overdue, but it remains to see if the new entrant will go anywhere. Looking at the main players it does not give you much confidence, a failed business person and failed politician and a former electricity boss. It would have given more confidence if any one competent in marketing, sales and with experienced from the main markets as China would have been involved.
We certainly hope it will go well for them, but New Zealand need to take a step away from its traditional beancounter and "famous face appeal" approach. In China, where the dairy market is increasing some 40% annually, bosses keep a low profile, and they are all out of the famous Chinese successful engineering culture. No back room pretty suit clad boys in tall glass towers shuffling the money in accounts trying to make it all just look better, in China managers are in the front line getting their hands dirty, and they know what they are doing.
The Oceania Milk setup reeks of the traditional Kiwi attitude that "we are experts, but we just have not done it before." Would you fly with an airline who appoints economists and accountants as pilots? Probably not, but it seems like Kiwis love the concept when it comes to managing companies and ventures.
We can only pray that this in some way turn to something positive for New Zealand. Lets hope they at least hire some China competent and sales and marketing competent people.
Rick Harriss
Writer in Hong Kong
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Nigeria is now in the South Pacific.
We have all heard about Nigerian scams, how scam operators, many based in Nigeria, rip off unsuspecting victims. It appears that another country now has also gained the unenviable reputation of “Nigerian scams”. That county is called New Zealand.
New Zealand is a small country highly dependent on its export and reputation, so you would expect it take good care of its international standing. Not quite, and it does show in the balance of trade and the future predicted demise.
Minister of Immigration Jonathan Coleman in a recent press release labeled New Zealand immigration a disaster that needed urgent attention after a damning report by Auditor General.
Urgent is not the word because the potential overseas students, skilled immigrants, tourists, business people and expat Kiwis have known that for years. New Zealand is already off the shortlist.
In a recent China government survey New Zealand does not figure at all among preferred destinations for overseas study (97% of countries) and no New Zealand university is mentioned among the top 100 preffered, but Australia is number two, after the USA. The resent published events where Asian students were thrown out because they became pregnant have just added to the impression that New Zealand is a country with state racism with an edge against Asians.
Tourism could be, and should be, a core industry in New Zealand. Unfortunately it is not, the New Zealand immigration has established a reputation of being a nearly impenetrable firewall against getting into the country, if you are Asian of course. Other nationalities are obviously treated differently, and the Asians know. Chinese are no longer traveling in the proverbial flock following a guide with a flag. The travel as individuals, just like Kiwis, but New Zealand has established a firm reputation of being off-limit for Chinese individual travellers.
Any tourist operator knows that tourists choose destination to 80% based on recommendations from other tourists. New Zealand’s reputation is not exactly good. The most simple scam is to establish a check out time of 10 in the morning, then only put that in some obscure sign or “terms”, and when the guests check out late, they are charged for an extra day. The international well accepted standard check out time is noon. Stories about guides taking tourists to expensive back street warehouses to buy Chinese made Kiwi souvenirs, preventing them from exploring on their own, or feeding them cheap Chinese food are well known, and it is done by Kiwis, not migrant Chinese as often is claimed in defense by New Zealand.
Immigration consultants are another well known scammer group. They are now required to be registered, but there is an easy way around it. They strike up an alliance with a person or group in China, that group recruit the applicants, email the data to New Zealand where the work is done as usual, then the application is sent back to China, and the “immigration consultant” is now in China and New Zealand law will not apply, but the unregistered immigration consultant in New Zealand can carry on business as usual. It is also an excellent way to avoid tax in New Zealand as fees are paid cash in China. Much of the money finds its way to overseas banks not reporting anything to IRD.
Here are a couple of examples how scammers are alleged and reported to operate.
A company called “NewJobz” and “Skills New Zealand” are repeatedly alleged to have taken an upfront fee to find immigrants job offers so they can get a visa. They take a sizable “membership fee”, and then nothing happens. They also claim to be an immigration consultant. Names that pop up repeatedly are “Stuart Leck”, “Stu Macann” and “Stu Macann and Associates Ltd”. What is said to be happening is that one company is closed down and the information passed on to another, and the new company say it has no obligations to honor commitments the first one made, financial or other, to “members” of the old company. It is just that all the companies have the same owner and operates from the same premises. Potential immigrants lost their up front fees. The money appears to have been “filtered” out as costs, pay and salaries to the owner and media reports claim that potential immigrants lost NZ$600,000. It has been reported to the Commerce Commission and the ministry, but no action.
Another alleged scammer is mail drop provider located in New Zealand. People from overseas and Kiwi expats need a mail address in New Zealand, even if they are traveling overseas. The owner is running a mail center, he sign clients up as “private users” for a smaller fee. Then find ways to "upgrade" them to more expensive options. It is also alleged that he regularly opens customers letters, register their forward address or senders address to find reasons to charge their credit card extra fees. If the customer is using chargeback, which is a feature to protect the credit card users against fraudulent charges, or refuse to pay, they receive threatening letters, and he has been know to retail letters as a “security” until they pay what he asks.
When people have challenged him on opening and reading their mail, he boldly claim that that it is his right under the postal act to open and inspect any postal item. Maybe it is just that the act did not foresee this kind of use of the rights. He also offers a service to have a "secret" address if you are running a business.
We have also seen reports that letters, bank information and bank cards have just disappeared. Another method is to offer a trial, then pretend not to have received the cancellation, and so keep running up fees and debt, or charge them to the customers credit card, until the hapless trial customer pays up.
The authorities seems to accept this behavior, the Commence Commission is apparently not acting on complaints, the courts are too expensive and residents overseas must of course take on the cost of traveling to New Zealand and pay expensive lawyers and even the law firms now agree that any dispute under NZ$70,000 is not worth taking to court.
Using the Disputes Tribunal is also impossible for anyone outside New Zealand, you must be present or the claim is thrown out. To travel maybe three times from Asia to New Zealand may cost in the vicinity of NZ$25,000, and it is not worth it when you are scammed out of a few hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
It is this sort op operator that over the years has given New Zealand a bad reputation, and lately the less flattening reputation of being “The Nigeria of the South pacific.”
Rick Harriss, Kiwi writer in Hong Kong.
New Zealand is a small country highly dependent on its export and reputation, so you would expect it take good care of its international standing. Not quite, and it does show in the balance of trade and the future predicted demise.
Minister of Immigration Jonathan Coleman in a recent press release labeled New Zealand immigration a disaster that needed urgent attention after a damning report by Auditor General.
Urgent is not the word because the potential overseas students, skilled immigrants, tourists, business people and expat Kiwis have known that for years. New Zealand is already off the shortlist.
In a recent China government survey New Zealand does not figure at all among preferred destinations for overseas study (97% of countries) and no New Zealand university is mentioned among the top 100 preffered, but Australia is number two, after the USA. The resent published events where Asian students were thrown out because they became pregnant have just added to the impression that New Zealand is a country with state racism with an edge against Asians.
Tourism could be, and should be, a core industry in New Zealand. Unfortunately it is not, the New Zealand immigration has established a reputation of being a nearly impenetrable firewall against getting into the country, if you are Asian of course. Other nationalities are obviously treated differently, and the Asians know. Chinese are no longer traveling in the proverbial flock following a guide with a flag. The travel as individuals, just like Kiwis, but New Zealand has established a firm reputation of being off-limit for Chinese individual travellers.
Any tourist operator knows that tourists choose destination to 80% based on recommendations from other tourists. New Zealand’s reputation is not exactly good. The most simple scam is to establish a check out time of 10 in the morning, then only put that in some obscure sign or “terms”, and when the guests check out late, they are charged for an extra day. The international well accepted standard check out time is noon. Stories about guides taking tourists to expensive back street warehouses to buy Chinese made Kiwi souvenirs, preventing them from exploring on their own, or feeding them cheap Chinese food are well known, and it is done by Kiwis, not migrant Chinese as often is claimed in defense by New Zealand.
Immigration consultants are another well known scammer group. They are now required to be registered, but there is an easy way around it. They strike up an alliance with a person or group in China, that group recruit the applicants, email the data to New Zealand where the work is done as usual, then the application is sent back to China, and the “immigration consultant” is now in China and New Zealand law will not apply, but the unregistered immigration consultant in New Zealand can carry on business as usual. It is also an excellent way to avoid tax in New Zealand as fees are paid cash in China. Much of the money finds its way to overseas banks not reporting anything to IRD.
Here are a couple of examples how scammers are alleged and reported to operate.
A company called “NewJobz” and “Skills New Zealand” are repeatedly alleged to have taken an upfront fee to find immigrants job offers so they can get a visa. They take a sizable “membership fee”, and then nothing happens. They also claim to be an immigration consultant. Names that pop up repeatedly are “Stuart Leck”, “Stu Macann” and “Stu Macann and Associates Ltd”. What is said to be happening is that one company is closed down and the information passed on to another, and the new company say it has no obligations to honor commitments the first one made, financial or other, to “members” of the old company. It is just that all the companies have the same owner and operates from the same premises. Potential immigrants lost their up front fees. The money appears to have been “filtered” out as costs, pay and salaries to the owner and media reports claim that potential immigrants lost NZ$600,000. It has been reported to the Commerce Commission and the ministry, but no action.
Another alleged scammer is mail drop provider located in New Zealand. People from overseas and Kiwi expats need a mail address in New Zealand, even if they are traveling overseas. The owner is running a mail center, he sign clients up as “private users” for a smaller fee. Then find ways to "upgrade" them to more expensive options. It is also alleged that he regularly opens customers letters, register their forward address or senders address to find reasons to charge their credit card extra fees. If the customer is using chargeback, which is a feature to protect the credit card users against fraudulent charges, or refuse to pay, they receive threatening letters, and he has been know to retail letters as a “security” until they pay what he asks.
When people have challenged him on opening and reading their mail, he boldly claim that that it is his right under the postal act to open and inspect any postal item. Maybe it is just that the act did not foresee this kind of use of the rights. He also offers a service to have a "secret" address if you are running a business.
We have also seen reports that letters, bank information and bank cards have just disappeared. Another method is to offer a trial, then pretend not to have received the cancellation, and so keep running up fees and debt, or charge them to the customers credit card, until the hapless trial customer pays up.
The authorities seems to accept this behavior, the Commence Commission is apparently not acting on complaints, the courts are too expensive and residents overseas must of course take on the cost of traveling to New Zealand and pay expensive lawyers and even the law firms now agree that any dispute under NZ$70,000 is not worth taking to court.
Using the Disputes Tribunal is also impossible for anyone outside New Zealand, you must be present or the claim is thrown out. To travel maybe three times from Asia to New Zealand may cost in the vicinity of NZ$25,000, and it is not worth it when you are scammed out of a few hundreds or even thousands of dollars.
It is this sort op operator that over the years has given New Zealand a bad reputation, and lately the less flattening reputation of being “The Nigeria of the South pacific.”
Rick Harriss, Kiwi writer in Hong Kong.
Saturday, June 6, 2009
My first Blog and it is about China
This is my first try to blog.
I am born in New Zealand, still a real Kiwi, retired now and have Hong Kong as my base, and I lived and worked almost all my life in China. I should know something about the place, how it works and what makes it tick and where it is heading.
I travel a loot in China, I have local ID so that makes it easy to go anywhere, even places as Tibet, and I read enough Chinese to get around and I travel and live like the Chinese. Someone once told me I was "environmentally damaged". Maybe true, but I fit in easily. People here are not even noticing I am a "foreigner". I am seen as one of them, and I feel proud of that.
I am an old bugger, a chip out of the old block, still very much a passionate Kiwi, and I am passionate about the truth, a clean nice world to live in, and personal freedom and openness. That is the reason I have staid here in China, personal freedom and freedom of expression and the right to remain private or even anonymous is great in China. Much better than New Zealand, believe me.
Many would feel it strange that I say that, after hearing about China's censorship and "oppression". Well, in New Zealand you are supervised, checked and controlled to the hilt. Your Internet browsing is logged, cameras register every move, regular road blocks and cameras keep tabs of you, and good help those who do not have a "Joe Karam" to support them in the in the corrupt justice system which is now so bad that even the judges have started to raise concerns publicly.
Good help those who step outside the "norm" and boundaries the officials and business elite have laid down, and those who dare to speak out against the establishment get very quickly silenced with the help of hundred year old laws, defamation laws, million dollar damages and threats of bankruptcy and ostracism forever from the business, political, or social society.
I am furious that it has gone as far as Asia are now viewing New Zealand as the "Nigeria" of the South Pacific exercising state racism, full of scam operators that take your money and future, and seemingly always get away with it
New Zealand has a great future, if Kiwis just cared to pick up the opportunity. Now they are starving to death in a closet full of canned food, jusr because they have not figured out how to use the can opener. The whole country is on the slippery slope towards a national financial disaster.
The way to handle this as far as China goes is to hire and bring in Kiwis who understand China, who has long and recent experience, has the China competence, who can handle the Chinese and be the counterweight, taking care of New Zealand jobs and interests.
There are not many of those Kiwis around, most live in China now, but for now they seems to be ostracized, "persona non grata", unwanted, in the beancounter based New Zealand corporate world.
Until we see a change, we will see more disasters as Richina, AFFCO, Lions and Fonterra. The Chinese government has put the Fonterra disaster with the dead and injured children and Fonterra cover up behind them, the Chinese public has definitely not.
You want a future for New Zealand, get the people involved who can create it, not the proven failures as now. Rick (harriss.rick@gmail.com)
I am born in New Zealand, still a real Kiwi, retired now and have Hong Kong as my base, and I lived and worked almost all my life in China. I should know something about the place, how it works and what makes it tick and where it is heading.
I travel a loot in China, I have local ID so that makes it easy to go anywhere, even places as Tibet, and I read enough Chinese to get around and I travel and live like the Chinese. Someone once told me I was "environmentally damaged". Maybe true, but I fit in easily. People here are not even noticing I am a "foreigner". I am seen as one of them, and I feel proud of that.
I am an old bugger, a chip out of the old block, still very much a passionate Kiwi, and I am passionate about the truth, a clean nice world to live in, and personal freedom and openness. That is the reason I have staid here in China, personal freedom and freedom of expression and the right to remain private or even anonymous is great in China. Much better than New Zealand, believe me.
Many would feel it strange that I say that, after hearing about China's censorship and "oppression". Well, in New Zealand you are supervised, checked and controlled to the hilt. Your Internet browsing is logged, cameras register every move, regular road blocks and cameras keep tabs of you, and good help those who do not have a "Joe Karam" to support them in the in the corrupt justice system which is now so bad that even the judges have started to raise concerns publicly.
Good help those who step outside the "norm" and boundaries the officials and business elite have laid down, and those who dare to speak out against the establishment get very quickly silenced with the help of hundred year old laws, defamation laws, million dollar damages and threats of bankruptcy and ostracism forever from the business, political, or social society.
I am furious that it has gone as far as Asia are now viewing New Zealand as the "Nigeria" of the South Pacific exercising state racism, full of scam operators that take your money and future, and seemingly always get away with it
New Zealand has a great future, if Kiwis just cared to pick up the opportunity. Now they are starving to death in a closet full of canned food, jusr because they have not figured out how to use the can opener. The whole country is on the slippery slope towards a national financial disaster.
The way to handle this as far as China goes is to hire and bring in Kiwis who understand China, who has long and recent experience, has the China competence, who can handle the Chinese and be the counterweight, taking care of New Zealand jobs and interests.
There are not many of those Kiwis around, most live in China now, but for now they seems to be ostracized, "persona non grata", unwanted, in the beancounter based New Zealand corporate world.
Until we see a change, we will see more disasters as Richina, AFFCO, Lions and Fonterra. The Chinese government has put the Fonterra disaster with the dead and injured children and Fonterra cover up behind them, the Chinese public has definitely not.
You want a future for New Zealand, get the people involved who can create it, not the proven failures as now. Rick (harriss.rick@gmail.com)
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