Prime Minister John Key has made an announcement that will come as a windfall to rural people desperate for fast broadband reports Scoop. Mr Key has told the Country Channel the government is to spend hundreds of millions of dollars more than originally earmarked for rural broadband. The Prime Minister says broadband is a commercial must for agriculture and the expanded plans will help boost productivity on the land. He says the days of painfully slow dial-up connections for rural customers have to come to an end and the government’s determined to see farmers catch up with urban New Zealand so they can run their businesses much more efficiently.

And in a two-part interview, the Prime Minister has told John Stewart on The Country Channel’s in-depth Newsmakers programme that the government will not stand in the way of any changes to Fonterra’s capital structure. He says he understands that the farmer-owned dairy colossus needs an ownership structure that will enable it to raise equity. But Mr Key says any decision on the ultimate ownership of Fonterra rests with its owners – the vast majority of the country’s dairy farmers.

Fonterra directors have flip-flopped on the coop’s controversial capital restructuring and their advocacy for floating shares in an operational arm. “The board will investigate options that would see Fonterra remain a fully integrated farmer-owned co-operative,” Shareholders’ Council chairman Blue Read said to Stuff.

 Fonterra is in the middle of a major bid to rejig its capital structure, but has run into problems with farmers who do not like its preferred option of floating the shares of an operational subsidiary. “Despite considerable initiatives to outline Fonterra’s strategy, there remains a lack of buy-in among farmers,” the council said today. But Mr Read said today the council is worried that the gutted investment in China and the debacle over changes to the cooperative’s capital structure may erode farmer confidence in its governance and future direction. (more…)