Why doesn't the Government appeal the Crafar decision?

The government, we are told, will not appeal the Crafar decision because of time concerns. I mentioned this to someone who should know yesterday, who replied that this is nonsense. The Court of Appeal would, I was told, be able to move as swiftly as the High Court on this matter if so energised. The suspicion is that it is not a question of the time, but the fact that an appeal would fail, for the decision has been made by a respected judge, well-versed in things commercial and with a pithy and intelligent insight into such matters. The point is that the OIO seems to have been stuffing up since 2005, and needed only one skillful legal challenge to be shown at fault.

We now need a serious re-appraisal of what we see as strategic and subject to constraint in terms of overseas ownership. If the counterfactual test is correct (and its makes sense to me) then it should be backed up by a robust policy on Foreign ownership, a view that has been lacking for years.