Cullen to chair NZ Post and Kiwibank
Written By:
- Date published:
12:59 pm, April 7th, 2009 - 10 comments
Categories: labour, news -
Tags: kiwibank, michael cullen, nz post, trans-tasman
Trans-Tasman reports:
the Government will offer former Deputy PM and Finance Minister Michael Cullen the post of Chairman of the Board of NZ Post and its subsidiary Kiwibank, succeeding Jim Bolger who is due to retire this month. Cullen is announcing his retirement from Parliament today.
Good on him.
UPDATE: Stuff reports Cullen will be made deputy chair. Assuming Trans-Tasman is correct I’m guessing this will be until Bolger retires.
10 comments on “Cullen to chair NZ Post and Kiwibank ”
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Good luck to him, still think he was our best treasurer, Labour will miss his experience in the debating chamber. Will this be Jim Andertons last term too?
Some right-wing blogs are already incensed with this. Oh and bobo I do hope so. Anderton and Dunne should well retire.
Right wing bogs 🙂 they take verbal dumps often. GC I put Anderton in a class way above the likes of Dunne who I hope would go and take that anti-gravity defying hair with him 🙂 There are so many Nact hypocrites I know who bag people like Anderton and what he stands for but still have their mortgages with Kiwibank..
Cullen takes the reins at an interesting time. Kiwibank has an important role to play to keep the big 4 Banks honest with not only interest rates, but also availability of credit for the residential and business sectors. To this end Kiwibank has been performing well, booking $870M of home loans in the December quarter compared to ANZ $47M in the same period, and ASB were something like $50M. Also Kiwibank have been quietly gearing up their Business Banking capability and are starting to make some impact.
But recently Kiwibank has hit a brick wall with a lack of funding to allow them to continue their lending growth. Kiwibank have hitherto relied on deposit funds for their lending base, but have exhausted this supply, so Cullen will need to get them access to other sources of funding including wholesale markets to allow Kiwibank to continue on a lending growth path.
To this end Cullen’s appointment might be a good one, as he can tap into the network of contacts he will have developed during his years as Finance Minister. Plus he has a reputation as a conservative manager, which should give new investors and rating agencies confidence.
Stuff is reporting that he’ll be made deputy chair –
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/2320529/Cullen-leaving-Parliament
Assuming Trans-Tasman is correct, I’m guessing this is because Jim Bolger is still Chair.
Well I don’t believe there is room for parties based around one person. Anderton has been by himself for two terms. Dunne likewise had two terms by himself then one term where he got over 5% then back down to having just one another MP and now by himself again. I just don’t believe there is room in parliament for MPs who aren’t able to grow their base. The Maori party is different because their push is across several Maori electorates and Act at least from 1996-2002 was able to attract 5% and from their low of 2005 were at least able to grow their percentage of votes. I just don’t think Anderton or Dunne can do that. Thus I don’t believe they should be in government.
—
Anderton has made his worth in Parliament. Kiwibank is a symbol of that. Economic Development is another and probably I am missing other issues where Anderton really made his mark. But I don’t think Anderton can offer that anymore. And if anything in Christchurch at least is taking votes away from Labour.
According to the herald, he’s only getting the deputy role at NZ Post. Good for him I guess, but in terms of Labour in parliament that’s not a good deal in exchange for losing their only person, from what i’ve seen, who can stand up to the nats and actually call them on their bullshit in the house.
I expect the deputy role is only temporary. Expect Bolger to step down later in the year.
In the meantime, I wonder how Bolger and Cullen will get along, having been political foes for so long.
Good grief, the kiwiblog post on this issue is Hillarious and Fascinating.
Go and have a look! As GC said the right wingers are incensed!
Fuck knows why, it aint even that bigger deal.
Great news. Cullen has been a real treasure. His humour and his inability to suffer fools has been inspirational. Once again Key surprises but for the right reasons. The troglodytes of the right will be apoplectic. But I guess they were the fools on the receiving end of his wit, irony, sarcasm and economic good sense.
Go Michael. Bolger had a sensible pragmatism about his style which is hardly incompatible with a Cullen with a major contribution to make.