Privatisation by stealth | The Jackal

27 Jul 2017

Privatisation by stealth

Many Kiwi's will remember the terrible condition some of our former state owned assets were in after private owners asset stripped and failed to invest in them properly. It has cost New Zealand billions and billions of dollars to try and fix the mess privatisation has caused.

You would think then that the National party would have an obligation to voters to let the public know its intentions prior to an election. Unfortunately that doesn't appear to be the case leading into the 2017 election, with the current underhanded government trying to secretly sell off our National electricity grid.

Yesterday, Scoop reported:

NZ First says a leaked January 2017 presentation to Transpower by Swiss Investment Bankers UBS reveals the National Government intends to privatise the National Grid.

“We have evidence National is lining Transpower up for privatisation in 2018 if given half a chance,” says New Zealand First Leader and Member of Parliament for Northland, Rt Hon Winston Peters

“A leaked UBS presentation to Transpower scopes the market, investor appetite and even suggests how stakeholder concerns could be managed. UBS has form with Transpower, having arranged for Transpower a Cayman’s Island based financing deal which only ended in recent years.

“Kiws are being seriously conned.  Sir John Key promised “no more asset sales after Genesis” while Bill English told media in November 2013 that everything which could be sold had been.  Even Mr Joyce said in November 2013  "we will be transparent" about resuming asset sales.

Just like Tau Henare’s placement in Housing New Zealand, the National led government has stacked the deck by placing Tony Ryall on Transpowers' board of trustees. With him in charge, there can be no doubt that National knew about and condoned the privatisation plan Winston Peters has uncovered.

With two thirds of New Zealander's being against asset sales, Steven Joyce claiming ignorance over their privatisation by stealth plan is about his only play, knowing that the public wouldn’t want such vital infrastructure sold off and degraded for private profit.

Many voters, including National's, won't be happy that the current government is trying to secretly sell our vital assets without informing us of their economic sabotage first.