BENN BATHGATE/STUFF

The comments of Shane Jones come just months after his broadside at Air NZ.

Outspoken Cabinet Minister Shane Jones has taken a huge swipe at Fonterra saying it's time for a restructure and the chairman should "catch the next cab out of town".

His comments come just months after he launched an extraordinary broadside against Air NZ, suggesting its chairman step down and its chief executive stay out of politics.

On Wednesday, the Regional Economic Development Minister tore strips off Fonterra saying, "I've been bloody disappointed that Fonterra, in my view, their leadership have not accepted there's been a new government and there's a new narrative, and I've had a gutsful of them believing they're bigger than what their writ really is".

Regional Economic Development Minister Shane Jones says Fonterra's leadership should "focus less on interfering in politics and more on justifying the money they've lost overseas".

He said the company's chief executive Theo Spierings standing down was only the beginning and its chairman John Wilson "should in quick order catch the next cab out of town".

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"I'm worried about the absolute absence of accountability for the enormous amounts of dough that the current Fonterra chairman has presided over," Jones said.

He wants the company to "focus less on interfering in politics and more on justifying the money they've lost overseas".

"I believe that they have become disconnected from the farming community and I said in front of Mr John Wilson that I have requested the Minister of Agriculture - when he looks at his dairy restructuring - identify the issues and whether or not it's time for us to look at a restructuring of Fonterra," Jones daid.

"The leadership of Fonterra I believe, starting with the chairman, is full of their own importance and have become disconnected."

Speaking at the Fieldays on Wednesday, Wilson was tightlipped over his own future as chairman. By the end of next month he will have been on the board for four terms, and chairman for two.

Fonterra did not wish to respond to Jones' comments.

National's regional development spokesman Paul Goldsmith says the reason business confidence is plummeting is because Jones is repeatedly seeking publicity by attacking business leaders.

"Shane Jones' attacks on Fonterra's leadership are the latest burp from a man who is fast losing any respect he once had.

"He says Fonterra's leadership is 'full of their own importance'.  That sounds like a more apt description of himself," Goldsmith said.

'WE HAVE ENOUGH INQUIRIES'

It wasn't only Fonterra feeling the wrath of Jones after he took a stab at his own Government saying "in my view we have enough inquiries".

The Government has been fighting off criticism over the number of inquiries and working groups it's set up since the coalition was formed, which Jones spoke openly about at the Fieldays on Wednesday morning.

Speaking to media back at Parliament, he reiterated his comments saying. "In my view, we have enough inquiries, enough commissions, and I will not support in my purview one more".

Jones clarified that when he made the comments he was specifically talking about his own ministerial portfolios but went on to say, "it's up to Cabinet to expand working groups and I'll have my say within Cabinet, but I certainly said today that I'm not going to support another inquiry".

And he didn't stop there, turning his sights on economists as well and their lack of "super-natural powers".

Jones' criticism of economists and analysts came on the back of a question about the ASB regional scorecard, which said Northland was right at the top and Taranaki was at the bottom, which was in part to do with the Government's end to oil and gas offshore exploration permits.

"Economists are guesstimators, not all economists are very good at mathematics and those that are tend to show us that statistics can tell you any lie," Jones said.

Asked whether that was an attack on economists, he said, "economists in my view had their status elevated as high priests of modern political economy".

"I'd rather listen to ordinary business people, firm owners. No, I don't buy into this school of thought that the economists are somehow endowed with super-natural powers," Jones said.

 - Stuff