Hearing about your MOM

Written By: - Date published: 4:28 pm, April 24th, 2012 - 5 comments
Categories: privatisation - Tags:

The Finance and Expenditure Select Committee hearings into National’s “Mixed-Ownership Model” Bill (aka Asset Sales) have begun in Wellington.

The vast majority of the more than 600 submitters to the select committee process are opposed (incl me) – most of them very strongly so.  Of those presenting to the Committee by 4pm today, all are opposed – most of them vehemently.

Grey Power have presented how it will cost consumers on average $265/year to go to privately run companies – that the difference in cost between consumers of the SOE electricity companies and the currently privately held ones.

As Trevor Mallard puts it: “That’s quite a tax.”

And it’s not a tax to the government, to provide better social services either – rather a tax to pay to the wealthy who’ll be able to buy these assets.

At 3.31c/kWH or ~14% more expensive, that’s quite a tax on what most consider a human right.

The hearings are currently continuing, and adjourn to Auckland for Thursday.  The 6 National MPs on the committee will continually have the message hammered home to them, although they are unlikely to be listening (although you could try emailing them to help…).  One hopes Peter Dunne is listening, despite not being on the committee.

There will no doubt be many more submitters like Claire Beakley telling them: “You don’t sell half the house to do up the living room”.

[Although Danyl thinks Bill English might…]

5 comments on “Hearing about your MOM ”

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  1. Dr Terry 1
    24 April 2012 at 8:29 pm

    Just one glance at the Select Committee membership is enough to make any comedian downhearted.
    The Tories are, of course, hell-bent on not listening, for they are incapable of hearing.Yes, everything is piled into grandiose short term “solutions”; the real suffering will come in the longer term. But who will be waiting around to see that outcome (for our grandchildren)? The rich and powerful have already reaped their rewards (with more to come), so why should they care for the future of their country?

  2. tc 2
    25 April 2012 at 6:52 am

    Another rubber stamp on the way to enriching your mates at the expense of every kiwi, this is essential infrastructure required for economic certainty and security built up over decades and generations of kiwi citizens power bills and taxes.

    They simply don’t give a F, when is the Labour party going to wake up with some simple lines on the economic and sovereign stupidity of this as well as some other simple lines about this manufactured crises such decisions as the tax cuts have created.