Nice work if you can get it

I wonder how cash-strapped dairy farmers are viewing their Fonterra masters moving into a new glass tower in downtown Auckland later this month. Regarded as the smartest contemporary building in the country, the Jasmax-designed glittering corporate headquarters is described as a bold statement about the dairy giant’s presence in the city.

Critics however say it continues to highlight the disconnection between head-office and the shareholders and many are asking: “Why Auckland?” Given the rural spread of its owners, does it really need to rent prime real estate in one of the world’s most expensive cities at all?

Waikato University agribusiness professor Jacqueline Rowarth said “Fonterra shareholders would rather their company was in the news because of the great job it was doing for them and the New Zealand economy than that they are renting a glossy new building in Auckland.”

The edifice cost $93.2 million to construct and is jointly owned by the Singaporean government and the Goodman Property Trust. It will house more than 1000 staff, many of whom draw salaries in excess of $100,000 annually; it has 100 bicycle parks in the basement and 189 carparks. Visitors to the building will approach the entrance via a landscaped parkland northern-plaza featuring manicured lawns and gardens that are irrigated by rainwater channelled from the building.

Fonterra, whose hopes and aspirations the whole country relies upon, has more than $7.5 billion of debt which percentage-wise starts to look a bit like the $19 trillion American government deficit.

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Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder and I must admit I am not particularly beholden to the new flag design. Despite this, I will still vote for it. The majority of those inclined to participate in the process ticked the red, white and blue Kyle Lockwood design in the first box, but because of the convoluted and flawed preferential voting system we ended up with the black, white and blue version which in my view pales by comparison.

The exhaustive procedure was all but hi-jacked by the left-wing twitterati brigade whose Red Peak option was never going to fly, but was designed to abrogate the whole project. A vote for a change looks like support for John Key and there is a section of the public who would do anything to thwart his plans. My ignominious loyalty to the right-of-centre means I will nonetheless opt for the less-than-perfect new flag.

One piece of beauty to which I am beholden however is the Neil Dawson sculpture destined to be placed precariously on Masterton’s Northern approach roundabout. But again, there are detractors. Some don’t like it at all and others like it, but want it tucked away out of sight somewhere in case some demented soul crashes their vehicle into the anchoring poles while admiring its magnificence.

Meanwhile one or two District Councillors are asking for it to be put on hold in case the maintenance of it might prove too much of an encumbrance on the council.

If this sort of attitude was prevalent in Auckland, Fonterra’s head office would be in an old tin shed.

“The key to understanding people is in its art: its writing, painting, sculpture.” - Louis L’Amour