assets

Categories under assets

privatisation (512)
- Public Private Partnerships (43)

Don’t sell into a down market

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:34 am, August 9th, 2011 - 34 comments

Before the government launched its asset sales policy, the Treasury told it that “significant participation by foreign investors” would be “essential” to provide “pricing tension”. In other words, if they can’t sell to foreigners at a high price, they wouldn’t get the revenue they want. So, the second global financial crisis should scupper the plan, eh?

No debate for Hampden

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:35 am, August 5th, 2011 - 42 comments

National pollster David Farrar wants scientists to debate a fake Lord climate change denier saying “Why should anyone listen to people unwilling to debate?”. Well, David, next time you’re giving your polling report to the Kitchen Cabinet, tell them that. Because National is refusing to participate in coming debate on their asset sales policy.

Hickey’s prescription for the currency

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:26 pm, August 3rd, 2011 - 36 comments

The neoliberal myth is that government economic policy doesn’t really matter, it can’t affect the economy – apart from being an anchor on growth. The truth is, government is the biggest actor in our economy. What it does matters. Bernard Hickey has listed 10 ways that the government could act to get the exchange rate down.

The $10b hole in National’s budget

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:00 am, July 20th, 2011 - 61 comments

Things are going from bad to worse for Steven Joyce. Labour has released its estimate of the cost of lost dividends by 2025 if National’s asset sales plan goes ahead: $9.7b. All omitted from National’s budget. Labour has challenged National to concede the numbers or provide its own. Instead, Joyce’s excuses just show he doesn’t understand accounting.

Steven Joyce strikes out

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:45 am, July 19th, 2011 - 21 comments

Associate Finance Minister Steven Joyce has dealt his government’s economic credibility a serious blow by attacking Labour’s costings of its fiscal plan and getting his own numbers wrong. David Cunliffe looks to be enjoying himself as he rips Joyce apart on Red Alert, in the Herald, and in the Dom. So much for Joyce’s dreams of succeeding English as Finance Minister.

Game theory

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:08 am, July 16th, 2011 - 15 comments

In a comment yesterday on Eddie’s post ‘CGT or asset sales? Which do you prefer?‘, Matthew Hooton wrote “Where do I tick “I want both”?” Except for Nat sycophants, most righties acknowledge the need for a CGT. What should they do? Well, a little game theory shows that such a rightie should vote for a Labour-led government, this one time.

Labour vs National on economic vision

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:00 pm, July 15th, 2011 - 34 comments

At the same time as Phil Goff and David Cunliffe were unveiling Labour’s economic vision, Bill English was defending National’s in Parliament.

Labour tax announcement coverage

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 2:25 pm, July 14th, 2011 - 139 comments

Voters will see Labour oppositions on both sides of the world in a completely new light after this week. Phil Goff and Ed Miliband both took the bold step of taking on hitherto untouchable third-rail issues; capital gains tax in New Zealand and Rupert Murdoch’s pernicious monopoly media influence in England. Both leaders have turned the political landscape upside down and given voters a clear choice between the interests of the many and of the few. Go here for all the details. New Zealand is not for sale – game on for November!

CGT or asset sales? Which do you prefer?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 7:24 am, July 14th, 2011 - 107 comments

Generally, no-one likes taxes, but Labour’s polling shows Kiwis are surprisingly receptive to capital gains tax. Head to head with National asset sales plan, the choice was clear: 55% prefer CGT vs 32% privatisation. In a contest of economic plans, Labour wins hands down. Even John Whitehead agrees. All English can do is scaremonger about the 35% debt ceiling.

English to go over asset sales lie?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 12:30 pm, July 11th, 2011 - 61 comments

Labour has been chipping away at National’s case for asset sales for months. The hole in the budget has been exposed, the ‘mum and dad investors’ myth has been quashed, the efficiency argument has been broken. Now, Bill English has been caught out lying to Parliament over advice that shares would go to foreign buyers. He’ll be forced to resign.

Privatisation a dirty word?

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 10:19 am, July 4th, 2011 - 48 comments

Lockwood Smith has ruled the word ‘privatisation’ is “political” and not “objective”. National doesn’t want to engage in an honest debate on asset sales because it can’t win on the facts. But trying to stop the Opposition using the word privatisation and insisting they use the govt’s spin term ‘Mixed Ownership Model’ is a step too far.

Treasury: assets would end up in foreign hands

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:59 am, July 1st, 2011 - 71 comments

Treasury has confirmed that National’s plan to sell public assets would need foreigners to buy a lot of the shares because domestic demand would be too small for the government to make as much money as it is counting on. Forget ‘mum and dad investors’, the big buyers would be foreign sovereign wealth funds.

Pay $4K or they sell our assets overseas

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:29 am, June 22nd, 2011 - 134 comments

David Cunliffe has done the maths. National wants to sell $6.8 billion worth of assets and it says they would be bought up by ‘mums and dads’. How much would each household have to invest to keep hold of the assets we already own? Over $4,000. Have you got that kind of money lying around to buy what you already own? Me neither.

Privatisation, if only

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 2:15 pm, June 20th, 2011 - 19 comments

NZX Chairman Andrew Harmos laments opposition to asset sales saying “if only opponents of this could have the intellectual honesty to recognise that it is a policy that has no losers”. Rijab respectfully disagrees and wonders if it isn’t the Chairman of the organisation with the most to gain from privatisation that is being intellectually dishonest.

Labour to entrench SOEs

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 2:00 pm, June 20th, 2011 - 92 comments

Phil Goff has just announced that Labour is putting up a private members’ bill to entrench SOEs. This would mean they could only be sold either with 75% support of Parliament, or with majority support in a referendum. Great Stuff. These are our assets. They should not be sold without our permission.

Labour proposes asset sales law

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 11:55 am, June 20th, 2011 - 57 comments

Labour proposes a new law to stop asset sales. More like this please!

Monopolies

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 12:49 pm, June 15th, 2011 - 271 comments

Natural monopolies should be controlled by councils or government. The so called free market has only one plan for them: extract as much money as they can, then keep milking them for all they are worth till the government steps in and regulates or is forced to buy the asset back with the private owners making a huge profit.

Contact: a model of lost Kiwi ownership

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 9:30 am, June 14th, 2011 - 43 comments

An attempt to promote asset sales in yesterday’s Dom ended up falling on its face. The author takes the government line, that Contact provides the template for ‘mum and dad’ investors buying SOEs. But the article admits the truth: only a tiny fraction of Kiwis ever invested in Contact, less own it now, and even they may soon be forced out.

English: dodgy asset sales figures

Written By: Ben Clark - Date published: 4:19 pm, June 9th, 2011 - 15 comments

Question Time: David Cunliffe wipes the floor with Bill English in the House today, as he shows up his missing costs of asset sales.

English – sell dams to buy prisons

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:37 am, June 9th, 2011 - 54 comments

So, that’s National’s great big plan: get rid of our electricity assets and use the cash to build more prisons. Not much of a brighter future there. National still hasn’t come up with a convincing reason why we would sell highly profitable monopolistic companies. Instead, we’ve seen a series of weak excuses. Now, English has revealed the truth.

Chart o’ the day: maybe we should buy back our shit

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 2:13 pm, June 8th, 2011 - 21 comments

ACC privatisation plans announced

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:00 am, June 2nd, 2011 - 41 comments

National has announced plans to privatise ACC’s work account. Currently, they don’t have the numbers to get it through the House. ACT won’t vote for it because its not completely rabid and the Maori Party won’t vote for privatisation. So, this becomes another election issue: another bloody good reason to vote National out.

Smith to announce ACC privatisation

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 6:30 am, May 30th, 2011 - 85 comments

Labour’s Chris Hipkins has the inside word: On Wednesday this week, Nick Smith is going to announce what amounts to the effective privatisation of a large part of ACC. You won’t hear the word privatisation uttered from his lips, he’ll use all sorts of other words like ‘competition’ and ‘market discipline’, but privatisation it will be.

“Mum and Dad investors”

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 2:41 pm, May 28th, 2011 - 23 comments

No Right Turn on National’s spin about “Mum and Dad investors”.

Vote Key, get asset sales

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:21 am, May 27th, 2011 - 58 comments

Based on the Herald’s latest poll, that is a message the Left will be well advised to push hard. The poll shows 62% opposition vs 29% support for asset sales, while NACT polls at 56%. So, at least 18% are prospective NACT voters AND oppose Key’s main policy. The Left can win over many of these people on this vital issue.

Labour’s new online game

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 12:09 pm, May 26th, 2011 - 53 comments

Labour’s new online game is hilarious. Choose whether or not to take the options presented and see the results. Politics is all about choices

So much for seeking a mandate

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 10:56 am, May 26th, 2011 - 15 comments

Remember when John Key was promising that he would seek a mandate from the people at the election before starting to sell public assets and cutting Kiwisaver. It was only a week ago. And he’s breaking his promises already: the Kiwisaver cuts actually kick in on July 1, and the privatisation process is underway.

Key’s dodgy scheming

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 12:00 pm, May 25th, 2011 - 22 comments

*Key says that we will get to vote on his Kiwisaver cuts in the election. Truth is, they passed the law last week and the tax credits are cut from July 1. *What’s up with the dodgy Kiwibank numbers? Plans for sale? *The govt is importing World Cup workers while 270K are jobless. *Key’s jokes falling flat with pissed off voters.

Take control

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:59 am, May 20th, 2011 - 6 comments

It matters not who owns a thing, what really matters is “who controls it” . We have been watching our house being burgled for to long haven’t we? We seem to forget we are still in control of this country, and we the people need to get back that control, the control of our parliament, that belongs to us!

So where’s the plan?

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 6:54 am, May 20th, 2011 - 108 comments

Not in John Key and Bill English’s third budget. The ‘good times’ they are promising would have looked pitiful under Labour. 4% wage growth will be below inflation once the Kiwisaver clawbacks get you. National have pinned their hopes on Christchurch rebuilding itself, and claiming the credit for themselves. Oh, and their projections assume asset sales.

Our water for sale?

Written By: Mike Smith - Date published: 8:11 pm, May 9th, 2011 - 17 comments

Colin James tips National’s plan for our water: ” a Crown company like that for ultra-fast broadband fibre-laying, capitalised from the proceeds of selldowns of state-owned enterprises and operating in public-private partnerships to get projects under way and then sell them on to farmers. Now where does China fit in that?”

Sounds like one disaster after the other. Decisions after the election of course.