assets

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privatisation (511)
- Public Private Partnerships (42)

ACC levy hikes another step to privatisation

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:40 am, December 11th, 2009 - 79 comments

As expected, Nick Smith has imposed substantial ACC levy hikes on families. For a worker on $40,000 with a car, you’re looking at $150 more a year. I would say that would take a large bite out of most people’s tax cuts but the fact is most people didn’t get a tax cut from National. […]

Privatising water

Written By: r0b - Date published: 8:30 am, November 11th, 2009 - 21 comments

Although the topic has had a turbulent and confused couple of weeks, it seems that National want to privatise Auckland’s water supply. Govt contradicts itself on water privatisation Press Release: Green Party 29 October 2009 Statements from the Government on the issue of water privatisation are confusing and contradictory and give no assurance to the […]

Granny’s waterworks

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:30 pm, November 2nd, 2009 - 17 comments

I think Granny Herald must have shares in Infratil, based on her rubbish editorial today: Particular fervour is reserved for private-sector participation in this sector, perhaps because water is one of life’s necessities. Rarely is it conceded that, in reality, it occupies the same utility bag as electricity, which in this country and elsewhere has […]

The best dividend is POWER!

Written By: lprent - Date published: 9:51 am, October 30th, 2009 - 18 comments

At this point it seems a bit pointless coming to work this morning. I’m sitting in a dark office with the cheeping of UPS’s (uninterruptible power supplies) and ozone as the batteries discharge keeping servers alive. The entire crew are sitting around waiting for the power to come back on, like large number of people […]

Remember who they’re fighting for

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 8:30 am, October 28th, 2009 - Comments Off on Remember who they’re fighting for

This memo was sent by the Insurance Council to its members in 2005 but it may as well have been sent this week. Because as sure as National was keeping its agenda secret and having clandestine talks with the insurers about privatising ACC in 2005 they will be having the same talks under wraps while […]

Labour stands up for ACC

Written By: r0b - Date published: 7:02 am, October 24th, 2009 - 14 comments

So – Labour have stood up for ACC. Bravo! History repeats. In the last year of the last National government (1999) they flogged off the profitable parts of ACC cover to their mates in the insurance industry (“opened ACC to competition”). The incoming Labour government reversed those changes and re-instated ACC as the sole provider […]

National announces ACC privatisation

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 5:26 pm, October 22nd, 2009 - 59 comments

National is going to privatise ACC. As part of the deal for support on its ACC cuts and levy hikes from the Maori Party and ACT, it will be privatising ACC’s Work Account (the part paid by employers for workplace accidents). First, there will be a perfunctory report provided by the ACC Stocktake Group, a […]

Maori Party supports foreign business over working Maori

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 11:55 am, October 21st, 2009 - 26 comments

It is a reflection of the schizophrenic nature of the Maori Party that one day they’re professing to care about poor Maori who are apparently missing out on their ACC entitlements and the next day they’re backing privatisation of ACC, which would lead to even worse outcomes for those Maori, because it might be a […]

Big bucks for Aussie insurers in ACC privatisation

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:30 am, October 20th, 2009 - 9 comments

It seems certain National will begin the privatisation of ACC starting with opening the work account to private competition. As happened in 1998, private insurers will cream off large and low-risk employers with loss-leading special deals to gain market share, leaving the taxpayer to shoulder the burden of the rest, and put up premiums later. […]

Told you so: Right pushes ACC privatisation

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:00 pm, October 19th, 2009 - 57 comments

Last Thursday, Colin Espiner was mocking all of us who said that National and other rightwing groups were trying to create a sense of crisis around ACC to soften us up for privatisation: “That somehow this is all just a VRWC* to derail the ACC, lower public confidence in it, and then sell it to […]

Woodhouse: ACC not in crisis

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:23 am, October 19th, 2009 - 13 comments

A fascinating interview with the Sir Owen Woodhouse in the Herald today. Sir Owen has led an amazing life – after helping supply Yugoslav partisans fighting the Nazis, he rose through the ranks of our judiciary becoming a Privy Councillor and President of the Court of Appeal, and is still going strong at 93. His most enduring achievement, […]

Spin-busting: ACC rises and cuts

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 1:45 pm, October 15th, 2009 - 38 comments

The Herald’s editorial today largely reads like it was written by Nick Smith and John Judge, so let’s use it as the basis for some spin-busting (my source is the ACC annual report unless otherwise mentioned): opponents say any change would be a prelude to privatisation. Yet all this exaggeration could not disguise the fact […]

The Independent on National’s ACC agenda

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:26 am, October 15th, 2009 - 5 comments

Very good editorial on ACC in The Independent today. The article’s offline, but it’s quite clear about why the Government is trying to manufacture a crisis over the financial position of ACC: ACC currently collects sufficient levies to meet each year’s claims – it has levy revenue of $4.1b in the 2009 June year, compared […]

We still pay, ACC or no ACC

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 10:01 am, October 13th, 2009 - 25 comments

Labour’s David Parker has been a bit slow reacting to National’s latest attack on ACC but now he’s in play he has a killer point to make: if ACC cover is cut, the costs of what was paid for by ACC will still have to be paid for by society somehow. The treatments and lost […]

First, manufacture a crisis…

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 9:00 am, October 12th, 2009 - 49 comments

The first thing you need to understand is ACC is not spending more money than it is taking in through levies. It is not going bust. It is not ‘making a loss’ despite what Nick Smith writes and the media faithfully repeats, but, then, they got taken in by this same trick six months ago. […]

A leopard doesn’t change his spots

Written By: Sam Cash - Date published: 3:00 pm, October 6th, 2009 - 23 comments

There is a very revealing quote from John Banks in the weekend’s Dominion Post where he talks about his campaign strategy: Uptown, Auckland Mayor John Banks, a former police minister and radio talkback host, is doing his best to soften his public image. “If I wear my policy on my sleeve, I won’t get elected. […]

Electrical storm

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 2:27 pm, August 13th, 2009 - 40 comments

Breaking up the old Electricity Corporation into a bunch of artificially competing companies has been a 15-year failure. They’ve poured heaps of money into competing with each other (despite mostly being owned by the same people, us), they’ve under invested, and prices have gone up fast. What’s National’s solution to this failed National experiment (which […]

Those who do not learn

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 4:20 pm, August 11th, 2009 - 15 comments

Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. National has learned nothing from the failure of the neoliberal policies of the late 80s / early 90s (when gaps in growth and income opened up with Australia). So they are gearing up to repeat them: [English] and other ministers’ utter single-mindedness of […]

I don’t think so

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 12:52 pm, August 2nd, 2009 - 8 comments

National and Act getting ready to sell our assets. Don McGlashan, joining Phil Twyfords ‘Not Yours To Sell’ campaign, says ‘I don’t think so’. Incidentally, Phil’s campaign is hosted on issues.co.nz, a new website for groups of all political websites to run campaigns on. SAFE, the SPCA, and the Pork Industry Board all have campaigns […]

Productive editorial

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 11:40 am, July 27th, 2009 - 29 comments

Interesting editorial on National’s new Productivity Taskforce in Saturday’s Herald. Australia’s Productivity Commission (independent, highly successful, and enjoying cross-party support) could have served as a good model, but: That possibility was ditched with the appointment of Dr Brash, whose excellent credentials as a former Reserve Bank Governor are compromised by his political partisanship. This will […]

Dark visions

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 9:53 am, July 26th, 2009 - 29 comments

I still get the chills some times remembering how close the Left came to losing the 2005 election. If it hadn’t been for Brash being caught out in his lies over links with the Exclusive Brethren’s smear campaign, National might just have squeaked the win. The Hollow Men would have been in charge. Wholesale privatisation, […]

Coated in privatisation pixie dust

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 5:13 pm, July 25th, 2009 - 29 comments

I like Colin Espiner’s writing. He’s got he best of the journo blogs. He’s focussed on issues rather than politicking. But does he ever drop some clangers – saying the Chief Justice could be fired, confusing numbers on the dole with the number who are unemployed, saying the Prime Minister can’t affect wages, and this: […]

Back to the future: electricity privatisation

Written By: Marty G - Date published: 2:12 pm, July 25th, 2009 - 89 comments

Bill English says he doesn’t much care whether monopolies or businesses with monopolistic power are owned by private companies or the Government does. He doesn’t care whether power companies are publicly or privately owned because he thinks he can make the electricity sector competitive. He’s dreaming like he was in the 1990s. Monopolies are a fact of life […]

This is the secret agenda

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 10:13 pm, July 23rd, 2009 - 28 comments

Remember the mantra about John Key being a centrist? Doesn’t get much play nowadays does it? And it shouldn’t. Not with the government cutting spending while unemployment rises, dragging Brash and Rankin back from the grave, spending large on private schools, contracting out public services, tax cuts for the rich and the snouts-in-troughs sham that […]

Says it all really

Written By: IrishBill - Date published: 3:21 pm, July 22nd, 2009 - 37 comments

You pricks decided what you were going to do and you’re not listening to me or anybody else. . . You people are not even interested in the people who are going to be living within the environment of a privatised prison. I actually hold you in f. . .king contempt From the select committee […]

Wee gripes: private=efficient

Written By: Zetetic - Date published: 10:01 am, July 21st, 2009 - 54 comments

Can Treasury Secretary John Whitehead explain how paying profit-making companies to do what is already being done by non-profit-making departments will save money? Of course not. If there are efficiencies to be made by all means make them. Doesn’t need some company sucking off profit to do that. We know what happens when you get […]

Gordon Campbell on PPPs

Written By: notices and features - Date published: 5:40 pm, July 15th, 2009 - 15 comments

Gordon Campbell has a great piece up at Scoop on the pitfalls of Public Private Partnerships, something we’re going to be hearing a lot more about in the near future if National and its business mates get their way. Go have a read.

Not Yours To Sell

Written By: rocky - Date published: 8:11 pm, July 11th, 2009 - 26 comments

Labour MP Phil Twyford is launching a campaign around his bill to protect Auckland’s community assets. www.notyourstosell.co.nz Phil Twyford’s private members bill, the Local Government (Protection of Auckland Assets) Amendment Bill, was pulled from the ballot last week. It will force a referendum before any of Auckland’s public assets are sold off. Criticism from the […]

Privatising the high country

Written By: Guest post - Date published: 1:30 pm, July 8th, 2009 - 29 comments

According to Forest and Bird, John Key’s government has found a nice quiet way of hocking off New Zealand’s most prized assets to wealthy private interests. National has indicated radical changes to tenure review – that’s the process South Island high country leaseholders can use to privatise parts of the farm in exchange for returning […]

Rodneytactics, Rogernomics and dog-whistle DonKey

Written By: John A - Date published: 12:09 pm, May 18th, 2009 - 26 comments

The tactics used by Rodney Hide to ram through the Auckland SuperCity legislation without reference to a select committee or referendum should not surprise anyone. Rodney’s just a puppet – the master is the man who sits behind him in Parliament and beside him in the ACT caucus – the Honourable Sir Roger Douglas. Douglas […]