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Speaker 1: Ever duper see Ellen. So guess what's happening after Nikola

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Speaker 1: Willis's butter meeting with Fonterra last night. Nothing After hyping

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Speaker 1: the meeting, after Mikey chasing Miles down the street, after

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Speaker 1: the news going live with the banner across the TV

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Speaker 1: that the Fonterra meeting is under way, after all of that,

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Speaker 1: nothing is happening because nothing can happen because Fonterra is

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Speaker 1: not ripping us off. We're simply paying the same international

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Speaker 1: price as everyone for butter, which Nicola knows because she's

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Speaker 1: an intelligent woman and woman and because she used to

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Speaker 1: work for Fonterra as well. So nothing has come from

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Speaker 1: the meeting. There is no announcement about what is being fixed.

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Speaker 1: Miles Hurral is not resigning or apologizing, and the price

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Speaker 1: of butter is not dropping. All that has happened is

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Speaker 1: that Nikola Willis has fronted up for the media today

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Speaker 1: and told them that Miles Hurral will talk to them

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Speaker 1: at some time soon to explain how the price of

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Speaker 1: butter works, which is a nothing outcome, in which case

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Speaker 1: you have to ask yourself the question, what was the

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Speaker 1: point of the meeting If Nicola actually truly does understand

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Speaker 1: the mechanics of butter pricing, and presume then also understands

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Speaker 1: that Fonterra isn't ripping us off and also had no

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Speaker 1: plans to announce anything after this meeting. Why hype the meeting?

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Speaker 1: I can answer that question for you, because she wanted

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Speaker 1: to pass the buck. She wanted to blame Fonterra. Because

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Speaker 1: National is feeling the pressure over the fact that Labour

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Speaker 1: is now more trusted to deal with the cost of

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Speaker 1: living crisis than National is according to the EPSOS survey

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Speaker 1: which is out this month. Because the heat is being

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Speaker 1: cracked up, cranked up on National, who have talked a

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Speaker 1: very big game about getting the economy back on tracking,

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Speaker 1: yet eighteen months in it's still very much off track

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Speaker 1: to the extent that people cannot afford butter. Nikola tried

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Speaker 1: to shift the blame from National to Fonterra and it

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Speaker 1: didn't work. Now, the lesson here is that performance politics

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Speaker 1: doesn't work. Blaming the supermarkets but doing nothing, blaming Fonterra

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Speaker 1: but doing nothing, blaming the banks but doing nothing. That

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Speaker 1: kind of stuff doesn't work, and in fact it's risky.

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Speaker 1: It runs the risk of backfiring, which is exactly what's

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Speaker 1: happening here. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen

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Speaker 1: live to News Talks at BEE from four pm weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio