Farm Dogs

Richard Long (my former boss) in his weekly Fairfax column writes that it is time for Myrtle the tractor to reappear. And with all the Labour MPs getting off, he observes the Police wouldn’t dare to charge Shane Ardern for a second time!

I think the Government is under-estimating how much resentment this has stirred up in rural NZ. And that is because they feel they are being punished for a city problem.

Just as the Government caved in on the fart tax, and the rural access issue, they may well backtrack on this issue mainly because it is a lose-lose. There is not a single vote in standing up to the farmers and insisting they micro-chip their farm dogs.

Hopefully the Government won’t back down too quickly though. It would be a shame to miss out on the marches to Parliament with hundreds or thousands of dogs.