privatisation

Categories under privatisation

Prisons for profit

Written By: - Date published: 5:50 pm, October 28th, 2008 - 49 comments

National’s announcement that it plans to privatise the prison system says a lot about the party’s underlying values. Say what you like about National’s temporary flip-flops, underneath they haven’t changed a bit. Whether it’s ACC, privatising assets, drafting electoral law or reforming the Resource Management Act, the National Party stands for entrenching private power at […]

Wait, what’s working?

Written By: - Date published: 6:26 am, August 13th, 2008 - 18 comments

ENGLISH: So we’re sitting here saying the punters are keen to keep it. They’re facing a recession. The last thing we want is to spend the whole election campaign with families of four on TV saying ‘Mr Key’s taking money off us’. You can’t do that. So later on we’re gonna have to have a […]

Sensitive about security

Written By: - Date published: 6:01 am, August 12th, 2008 - 20 comments

National activist/advisor Matthew Hooton on Nine to Noon: ‘the National Party leadership group is very sensitive about security. They look at the last election campaign that was lost on basically matters of security: the leak of the ‘gone by lunchtime’ notes and the Brethren link.’ No. National lost because it had a secret agenda; not […]

3 more points on the secret agenda tapes

Written By: - Date published: 1:25 pm, August 11th, 2008 - 61 comments

1) A secret agenda is not something that people talk about in public or when they know the information will get to the public. Therefore, the only way to expose a secret agenda with definite proof is by recording that evidence when the target does not know they are being recorded. The Police can’t just […]

08wire on Nats’ Kiwibank secret agenda

Written By: - Date published: 9:48 am, August 6th, 2008 - Comments Off on 08wire on Nats’ Kiwibank secret agenda

08wire.org, your videos make me smile.

Did Lockwood mis-speak too?

Written By: - Date published: 8:14 pm, August 5th, 2008 - 94 comments

It has been revealed that Bill English isn’t the only senior Nat who has been discussing a secret agenda behind closed doors. On TV3 tonight, a recording was played of Lockwood Smith saying: “There’s some bloody dead fish you have to swallow… to get into Government to do the kinds of things you want to […]

Sarcophagus

Written By: - Date published: 11:29 am, August 5th, 2008 - 9 comments

After a stunning attack on John Key last night, Bill English is now reverting to more standard National techniques for handling ‘accidental frankness’. Initially, deny. When played a recording, claim not to remember it. When that doesn’t kill the story, claim to have ‘mis-spoken’. Finally, attack the source. It’s the same pattern we saw with […]

Meltdown

Written By: - Date published: 10:36 pm, August 4th, 2008 - 90 comments

The English tape has exploded into a massive scandal. You’ll be familiar with the content of the recording: – English mocks voters as greedy simpletons taken in by a flashy con-man “they’re saying that nice Mr Key, he’s pretty smart, he will get me some more” – He claims Key doesn’t understand basic trade-offs in […]

The War on P

Written By: - Date published: 12:53 pm, July 22nd, 2008 - 9 comments

National Party strategist and Dominion Post columnist Richard Long declared war on “P” today. The “P’” word that is. Privatisation. Labour and the unions have attacked the proposed ACC changes by using the scare word “privatisation”, whereas the policy is actually aimed at providing choice in an area which is at present a monopoly.’ Actually […]

Merrill Lynch: Nats will privatise ACC

Written By: - Date published: 12:18 pm, July 2nd, 2008 - 93 comments

It’s refreshing to see some proper investigative journalism in this morning’s Dominion Post, with a revelation from Vernon Small that while National continues to try and downplay ACC and talk about “no privatisation in the first term,” a report from John Key’s old firm Merrill Lynch suggests National’s privatisation plans are an open secret among […]

Buy it back

Written By: - Date published: 1:07 pm, April 28th, 2008 - 21 comments

I see that the Wellington lines network has been sold. Given the network has been in in the hands of foreign investors before I can’t see a sustainable argument for blocking the sale as the Auckland Airport bid was blocked. I do think the government should have bought it back. Electricity is too important to […]

John Key on asset sales

Written By: - Date published: 8:03 am, April 15th, 2008 - 8 comments

Once bitten

Written By: - Date published: 1:48 pm, March 7th, 2008 - 33 comments

No surprise to see English fronting the Toll debate given Slippery John’s abysmal performance this week. Check out Bill in the background of this shot, are those daggers coming out his eyes? To his credit English gave much straighter answers about Toll than we would have got from Key and left little doubt about where […]

First planes, now trains

Written By: - Date published: 2:09 pm, March 6th, 2008 - 43 comments

It is looking more likely that the Government will buy back New Zealand’s rolling rail stock from Australian-based Toll. Toll has been a classic asset-stripper: buy a key piece of infrastructure that should never have been sold, take as much profit as possible with minimal investment, and force the Government to buy the infrastructure back […]

National: is there anything they won’t privatise?

Written By: - Date published: 4:03 pm, March 4th, 2008 - 17 comments

Burqa Bob wants to buy heartland rugby. In other news, Bill English plans to sell our sunshine hours to a Finnish consortium and Key has mooted flogging off our children’s laughter to the highest bidder. [Update: Kiwiblogblog doesn’t think it’s so funny]

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