Pastoral and Food Research Fund
NZPA has a story on the research fund announcement. The amount has been confirmed as $700 million but this is a capital injection which at 7% cost of interest is effectively $49 million annual in terms of expenditure. Still significant but around 0.1% of Government expenditure.
The funding is expected to be matched by industry contributions which is sensible.
I’ve heard on the grapevine that official advice to the Government was not to put the money into a dedicated capital fund, as this sort of jam jar approach removes the ability of Governments to consider quality of investment in future. Some OIAs will be revealing.
Also the rather unusual references to food and pastoral is because the Greens are campaigning against the Dairy Industry as being polluters, so they left Dairy off the propoganda.
Also worth noting that a ballpark estimate of *current* research and development industry funding is $130 million – via DairyNZ, Meat & Wool NZ, Fonterra etc. So this package, while very welcome, should be seen in context of current investment.
As I said this morning – greater R&D can make a real difference to NZ’s productivity and economic growth. So the announcement is a good one, even though it should have been done ages ago, rather than wait for the election campaign.
March 11th, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Cynical Politics!
March 11th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
Forget the R & D. Let’s get down to basic business.
CNN report that Wyeth will be spending USD280mil on a plant at Suzhou Industrial Park, Jiangsu, China. It will make infant formula and milk powder.
Back in the days of the N.Z. Co-Op Dairy Co Ltd Wyeth used to get their infant formulae manufactured at Waitoa. Now that Fonterra has taken over the management of that site Wyeth deal there no more.
I think an attitudinal change in Fonterra management will do more for our country than all that taxpayer funded R & D.
March 11th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I expect NZ Fast Forward or whatever it is called will be equally as dynamic as ‘The Knowledge Wave’ Closing the Gaps” and the various Jim Anderton’s garullous dreams. No doubt there will be an army of administrators, assessors, ajudicators, and flunkies, maybe even a Commissioner. The same result could probably be achieved by reducing tax.
March 11th, 2008 at 4:27 pm
Even better would be if NZ got round to matching Australia’s 150% tax concession for approved R&D (now up to 175% in some instances I believe). The approval process is a nightmare but once you’ve been minutely examined by about six different arms of government it’s an enormous incentive to keep investing in R&D.
Don’t get me wrong, this initiative is great. But NZ’s export future has to be about more than what we get off the backs of animals or grow in the dirt.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:00 pm
I am assuming they have gone down the “research fund” model to negate the requirements of treasury’s capital charging regime, where you get a 700 million capital injection and have to find 50-60 million extra each year in operating income to cover it.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
Labour’s run into trouble on this one already because the PPTA are slamming the plan already.
March 11th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
And having been in opposition for the entire millennium and National has formulated it’s policy on R&D – NOT.
“We will be releasing policy around the election time”
What you need more time to go up and down the country talking to business, industry and education to formulate a policy that should have already been announced.
Pathetic. If National is as serious about increasing wages and productivity, I thought a sound policy on R&D would have been the corner stone of such matters. Blimey keep this up and you deserve another millennia in opposition.
March 11th, 2008 at 6:26 pm
So the city loving socialists have finally figued it out, like baxter says, what the fuck happened to the knowledge wave, were not these townie nut cases going to transform NZ. As far as I’m concerned it’s way to little way to late and I won’t be voting for the socialist dipsticks. I remember Sullen calling farmers silly, fuckwit, prehaps it’s finally dawned on the morons who has been filling the trough they have their heads stuck in. Like others have suggested this will take an army of shinny arses to administer, whats the bet that sweet fuck all of the 700 mill make it to the R&D departments.
March 11th, 2008 at 11:13 pm
It never ceases to amaze me at how often and how stupid the name calling is by the right in this blog.
Socialist, to those of us closer to that actual tag, take that as a compliment, the dipstick bit we’ll leave and excuse as just a little too much methane in the milking shed.
Sullen – did you think that one all up by yourself, it’s pretty poor really, but I guess if you are name calling LIKE A 5 YEAR OLD it’s a start.
And finally SSB, where the heck is national policy on R&D after all of this DECADE in opposition??? Further where is industry R&D in this country and what has Fontera done for use except doubled the price of cheese and milk for us socialist scum from the big smoke.
Come on National, 1999 (Prince doesn’t even play that song anymore) was a hell of a long time ago, give us some policy, or is it that National policy is going to be too much for the masses to stomach.
In the best Steve Ballmer fat sweating monkey boy tradition I can John Key on stage now, dancing and screaming POLICY POLICY POLICY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bylDojTWfyU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQm07iuC-zs
Perhaps National could get sweat boy over to rev up the policy makers.
Mind you his way off the mark remarks about the iPhone suggest the old boy is long in the tooth and now off the money (is that the sound of Lockwood Smith working on Policy)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5oGaZIKYvo
March 11th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
sorry, not sure what’s going on, restart and all the comments are there.
IS moderation on now the F word is included?
March 11th, 2008 at 11:24 pm
deleted, awaiting moderation of the original post.
March 12th, 2008 at 9:38 pm
Being an unrepentant right winger I could not really comment on this socialist initiative but will it involve collectivisation of the farms and does research into styles of hip-hop come under “Pastoral” or “Food Research”. Will some of the research be carried out on the empty ground that Jimbo Min of Ag was flogging off up Jafa way for his industrial marine park whatever or will he buy back into the family shopping trolley business with his parliamentary pension. I await with baited breath the response from the left.