Fonterra milking New Zealand taxpayers

The Mar­itime Union has hit back at “social­ly irre­spon­si­ble” Fonter­ra pulling out of region­al ports and says the dairy giant’s prof­its are being sub­si­dized by the tax­pay­er.

Mar­itime Union of New Zealand Gen­er­al Sec­re­tary Trevor Han­son says Fonter­ra has come out with “weak excus­es” for its deci­sion to pull out of some region­al ports in favour of trans­port­ing prod­ucts by long dis­tance rail.

Mr Han­son says the future of the New Zealand trans­port indus­try seems to be in the hands of one man, Fonter­ra Gen­er­al Man­ag­er of Sup­ply Chain Strat­e­gy Nigel Jones.

“Fonter­ra holds the fate of whole region­al economies in their hands because of their size and influ­ence, but seem to have no account­abil­i­ty to any­one but them­selves.”