National is complaining about AgResearch's plan to close its Wallaceville facility and transfer people to Palmerston North and Dunedin. As with previous CRI reorganisations (such as LandCare), it looks likely to result in significant staff losses. Apparently, no-one wants to live in Palmerston North (no, really...?)
What makes this all a little rich is that the re-organisation is a direct consequence of AgResearch's legal requirement to "operate in a financially responsible manner", i.e. to generate "an adequate rate of return on shareholders' funds". This requirement is laid out in the Crown Research Institutes Act 1992. Three guesses as to who passed it...
I also find it interesting that National is once again advocating direct ministerial interference in the day-to-day management decisions of (legally independent) crown entities. The reason we stopped doing this was because ministers had a nasty habit of using those entities as job-creation schemes and putting large projects in marginal electorates. I guess the spirit of Muldoon lives on in the National party after all...
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