11. STUART NASH (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister of Finance
Further to his answer to Oral Question No 10 yesterday on the Government’s asset sales policy, in which he agreed that “New Zealanders already ‘own’ these shares”, why should Kiwi families have to pay again to buy what they already own?
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) Link to this
As is often the case, I did not say what the member alleges I said. No one will be forced to own anything. If people want to buy these shares they can. If they are satisfied with the view that they own them by being New Zealand taxpayers then the Government will continue to hold 51 percent of shares on their behalf.
Given that he hopes to raise $6.8 billion from asset sales, and there are 1.6 million households, is he not saying to every Kiwi family: “Pay $4,000 for shares that you already own or I’ll sell them offshore.”?
I think that Kiwis will see the sense in an arrangement that provides an opportunity for them to invest their increasing savings in New Zealand, and for the Government to get money that it can use for important public investment—and to get it from New Zealanders rather than borrowing it from foreigners.
Which does he think is the main reason that Kiwis oppose this Government’s privatisation plan by a margin of 2:1: first, that Kiwis object to paying again for assets that the Minister freely acknowledges they already own; or, second, that they know it does not make sense for the Government to give up ownership of assets that pay hundreds of millions of dollars a year in dividends that help fund our schools and hospitals and sell that profit stream to foreign buyers?
I am sure that Labour MPs are finding out more about those reasons at the very large public meetings I understand they are running in phone boxes around the country. There will be a couple of tests. One is that the Government is being quite clear that it will put this policy to the test in an election campaign. That is the first test of whether New Zealanders support it. The second test will be whether they are interested in buying shares. We expect that they will be.
Mr SPEAKERI hope the honourable member could hear that answer, because his own colleagues were making so much noise that I surely could not hear it.
Why has he or any other member of his Government not been willing to turn up to defend their privatisation policy on shows such as Q+A and in all other public forums to which they have been invited?
The Government is explaining its policy at every opportunity it can get. As I said, the test of the policy will be, first, whether the Government gets a mandate at the election—because we are doing what we said we would do, which is put it to the people first—and, secondly, whether New Zealanders put their hands up to buy shares. Members can make their own judgments about it, but we are reasonably confident that if we have the opportunity to provide those shares to New Zealanders they will probably be interested.