Dunedin asset sales protest

Written By: - Date published: 2:28 pm, June 16th, 2012 - 12 comments
Categories: activism, Privatisation - Tags: , ,

The sun shone brightly in Dunedin today (as it usually does of course). Between 1 and 2 thousand people (ODT estimate) turned out to march in protest at the National government’s plan to sell our assets.

The March was organised by Grey Power, and supported by the union movement, the political parties of the left, and NZF. (A couple of brave National supporters were there too – a special welcome to them!) We heard excellent speeches from a student representative, Glenda Alexander, David Parker, David Clark, Metiria Turei, Jo Millar (Grey Power) and others. Some random photos below (excuse poor quality phone pix).

An excellent day. As Dunedin North Labour MP David Clark put it on Twitter – “Weather and mood invigorating.”

12 comments on “Dunedin asset sales protest ”

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  1. BernyD 1
    16 June 2012 at 2:35 pm

    Good on them, even if the Nats ignore them the whole country can see people expressing their beliefs.
    Maybe we can start taking responsibility as a nation, instead of just putting up with the status quo.

  2. Peter Martin 2
    16 June 2012 at 3:44 pm

    Moooohahahahahaha

  3. BernyD 3
    16 June 2012 at 3:47 pm

    Glad I can entertain someone, good to see u expressing something

  4. fender 4
    16 June 2012 at 7:12 pm

    Can’t see PG in any of those photos but I’m sure he was there too.

  5. Carol 5
    16 June 2012 at 7:25 pm

    Well done Dunedin, Grey Power, et al!

  6. Shaz 6
    16 June 2012 at 9:56 pm

    It’s good to see that Stephen Jacobi, the head of the NZ-US Council and former head of the Trade Liberalisation Network tells it how it is. “Provisions in the TPPA are “aimed at allowing foreign investors redress in the event of government actions such {as} nationalisation”.

    So when National has privatised the power companies the effect of the TPPA would be to make it illegal for a future governmant to rescue a failing company by increasing the public holding holding in it without facing potential legal action under the investor state provisions of the Agreement. Had this agreement been in place the bailing out of the BNZ, buyback of Air New Zealand and KiwiRail would all have been illegal and would have seen the government of the day sued.

    In this context the MOM bill is surely revealed as a stalking horse for the TPPA. NZ government’s will soon be unable to act in the national interest to rescue core infrastructure irrespective of the potential damange.

    (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1206/S00442/fur-flies-in-nz-over-secret-trade-negotiations.htm) .

    • Shaz 6.1
      17 June 2012 at 12:19 pm

      Failing company. I used the wrong expression here – this is more than failing financially – failing to deliver what NZ people and businesses need- says smart grids or feed in tariffs.or the opportunity for new market entrants in the case of power compnaies is a national failure even though the companies themselves are profitable.

    • The Chairman 6.2
      17 June 2012 at 12:36 pm

      Winston Peters, on TV3’s Think Tank today, vowed to re-nationalize any assets sold at no more than the price sold. Shearer was silent on that.

      Didn’t Cunliffe also suggest similar?

  7. AnnaLiviaPluraBella 7
    18 June 2012 at 6:50 pm

    Labour has to inform all potential bidders for these Hydro Dams that a forced buy-back is not put of the question.

    That is not the same a committing to “re-nationalise”.

    A number of companies will already be analysing the opportunity and all the surrounding issues. In preparing their business cases they will have to prepare a Risk Analysis.
    One of the risks should be that a future government could enforce a buy-back at original purchase price or market price: whichever is lowest.

    • Shaz 7.1
      18 June 2012 at 10:04 pm

      “That is not the same a committing to “re-nationalise”.

      Is this in your opinion or Stephen Jacobi’s and the tppa signatories.

      I don’t think you have got it. The TPPA investment rules as revealed in the leaked documents, as analysed by Jane Kelsey and as made explicit by Stephen Jacobi in the press release linked above will enable overseas investors to sue the government if they legislate or regulate in a way that impacts profits. Their risks analysis will demonstrate that if the TPPA goes through they can sue the government for loss of profits – it’s that simple.

      An interesting side issue is that Labour is neither threatening to buy back the stolen assets nor to withdraw from the TPPA if signed.. This is an issue that needs some serious and urgent thought.

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