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Tuesday, 17 June 2025 12:14

Ivory bloody towers

Written by  The Hound
Ivory bloody towers

OPINION: The antipathy the previous government had for farmers no longer holds court on the Beehive’s 9th floor, but it’s still alive and well in some ivory towers, judging by a recent missive from the self-styled ‘Integrity Institute’.

Penned by a Dr Bruce Curtis, “formerly” a sociology professor at Waikato University, the title ‘Corporate Welfare for Agribusiness’ telegraphed which way he was going to screw the scrum.

Using the KPMG ag report as a springboard, Doc Curtis unleashed every cliché in the book: farmers making a profit was “farming privilege”; and the removal of impractical red tape was “regulatory capture in action”. And the Hound’s favourite sneer, “agribusiness is very focused on its bottom line”.

That’s right doc, farming is a business!

And it’s described as “the backbone of the economy” because that’s exactly what it is.

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