Key: tired & bereft of ideas

Written By: - Date published: 9:03 am, October 31st, 2011 - 32 comments
Categories: election 2011, john key, national, privatisation - Tags:

So, that was National’s ‘big announcement’tm? Allocating money they’ve already banked into a fund which is just an accounting fiction for capital spending that was already budgeted for.

It’s a political fraud and an insult to our intelligence to say the asset sale money be used ‘for’ special capital projects. It’s just as true to say that asset sale revenue would be used for the $1.1 billion a year that National is borrowing for tax cuts.

The other insult to our intelligence is that National still won’t admit the costs of selling assets. If we sell our assets now, they will be gone forever and we will lose their profit streams, which put hundreds of millions a year into that pot.

Notwithstanding all that, what about Key’s big promise: if we let him sell our assets, he’ll put a billion of the revenue into ‘transform’ schools over five years. Is that really so impressive? The primary and secondary education budget over the next five years will total $25 billion. They spend half a billion a year on capital investment. This comes to a grand total of $80,000 a year per school … all of which was already budgeted spending.

It’s obvious that National only whipped up this ‘Future Investment Fund’ at the last minute. It changes nothing. It means nothing. It’s not a policy, it’s an illusion of one from a party rattled by from suddenly finding itself on the back foot.

Talk about tired and bereft of ideas.

No-one’s bought it. Rather than talking about this wonderful new capital fund, National has got people talking about it’s greatest weakness: asset sales.

32 comments on “Key: tired & bereft of ideas ”

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  1. Craig Glen Eden 1
    31 October 2011 at 9:37 am

    Dishonest John the con the Nats have nothing left but deceit.So much for a brighter future.

  2. Jim Nald 2
    31 October 2011 at 9:46 am

    Thank you, John Key, for more bullshit.

  3. KJT 3
    31 October 2011 at 9:58 am

    Don’t you mean they have run out of bones to throw, to get back into power long enough, to complete the thefts begun in 1984.

  4. One Anonymous Bloke 4
    31 October 2011 at 10:00 am

    This is insane! Brand Key already took a major hit on the credibility front when he lied to Parliament over the downgrades. To now attempt such transparent deceit so soon afterwards, well, put it this way, to quote Fairfax media (sincere apologies): “Key is defending National’s plans to use revenue from partial asset sales to fund infrastructure projects, despite opposition criticism that it was bad economics and shonky accounting.” That’s the first paragraph of a story that’s been buried so fast its headline must be spinning 😉
    PS: they said “shonky” 😀

  5. vto 5
    31 October 2011 at 10:07 am

    I thought Key said the sale proceeds were going to be used to pay down debt?

    If he changes his mind so easily how can we trust that this current idea will stay?

    Also, re asset sale costs of a few hundred million – why get the private sector to do it at such exorbitant cost? The govt should do the sale itself and save the bulk of that cost. The usual benefits that investment banking dorks bring to such sales simply do not apply in the case of these assets.

  6. Colonial Viper 6
    31 October 2011 at 10:15 am

    John Key is National’s greatest asset. Has he already been sold off.

    • Hami Shearlie 6.1
      31 October 2011 at 10:25 am

      Assets can quickly turn into liabilities. John Key is like candy floss – looks good, but sooner or later you have had enough, can’t stand the sight of it, and more to the point, it’s bad for you!!!

    • mik e 6.2
      2 November 2011 at 11:59 pm

      the power drunKey photo opurtunikey to busy being in the lime light to take care of the promises he’s failed to deliver has driven our economy onto the rocks its leaking tons of money $72billion and counting likely to exceed $100billion Just $ 20 billion for CHCH the rest is to buy your vote this year and the downside is next term of govt National will cut everything they can and leave the economy in worse condition. The secret to bringing an economy out of recession is to stimulate main street and and not queens st and the Remeuras of this country

  7. Afewknowthetruth 7
    31 October 2011 at 10:20 am

    The entire game that the global elites are playing is founded on bullshit, corruption and oppression. And the levels of all three are increasing rapidly.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/politics/europes-leaders-look-to-us-and-china-to-support-crisis-deal-2377924.html

    (The US is insolvent, of course.)

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/authorities-impatience-with-occupy-movement-grows-2377928.html

    (Apparently, Oakland is close to becoming a war zone.)

    Unfortunately, most Kiwis are still too comfortable and too apathetic to pull themselves away from their television sets and gas barbeques and do something about it all.

    ‘tired & bereft of ideas’ That applies to Labour too, of course. Labour just wants the opportunity to tweak the system as it collapses.

    To imagine that voting will make any difference is to be utterly deluded. Voting simply provides the mechanism for replacing one gang of mendacious opportunists who are slaves to the system with another gang of mendacious opportunists who are slaves to the system.

    This will all end very badly. (And that’s before we even mention peak oil and environmental collapse).

  8. ak 8
    31 October 2011 at 10:20 am

    Brilliant economics from the party of business, I’m sure he farming sector will be right behind it. Soon we’ll see thousands of dairy farmers selling 49% of their cows to buy tractors.

    • Colonial Viper 8.1
      31 October 2011 at 10:26 am

      Or more accurately to sell 49% of their pastures to buy tractors. And then have to work the whole lot and have to give 49% of the milk away to the new owners.

  9. Zaphod Beeblebrox 9
    31 October 2011 at 10:21 am

    They haven’t sold the assets yet. How do they know what they will be worth on the open market? What happens if the the share nmarket falls in 2012? Will we still get our school buildings. Will the Canterbury irrigators get their shiny new pipes?

  10. JS 10
    31 October 2011 at 10:26 am

    The Nats don’t get that schools and hospitals are not just about bricks and mortar and new paint. Investing in health and education means investing in staff and training and teaching and learning, and respect for skills and working on good relationships. Otherwise we will be left with pretty buildings but no staff. And no assets to provide a secure income stream.

    • Afewknowthetruth 10.1
      31 October 2011 at 10:48 am

      TPTB are desperate to provide more construction projects to prevent the construction sector collapsing, now that we have entered the Second Great [never-ending] Depression.

  11. prism 11
    31 October 2011 at 10:32 am

    Shonkey’s shell game for sure. The word for today – ‘prestidigitation’ from him leads to agitation from me.

  12. Puddleglum 12
    31 October 2011 at 10:38 am

    My comment from ‘Open Mike’ is probably more appropriate in this thread.

    To repeat, which private contractors will end up creaming the asset sale profits as part of their involvement in the ‘Future Investment Fund’ projects?

    Given National’s flagged keenness for more private involvement (PPPs, etc.) in the education, roading and health sectors, what guarantee is there that this ‘ring fenced’ fund isn’t simply being ring fenced for private profit (and, hence, over time resulting in less rather than more public assets, owned and operated by public agencies)?

  13. the sprout 13
    31 October 2011 at 11:10 am

    the colour of the tie in that image needs photoshopping

  14. Craig 14
    31 October 2011 at 11:50 am

    “Vote National for a Brighter Future’…Because the Present’s Utter Crap!

  15. One Anonymous Bloke 15
    31 October 2011 at 12:37 pm

    Wtf? lol

  16. johnm 16
    31 October 2011 at 1:06 pm

    When you’re following a tired bereft of ideas ideology which doesn’t require intelligence or humanity other than privatizing everything and giving tax cuts to the rich. Well Key is the man of choice having those attributes in plenty to keep the same old tired and bereft of ideas ideological BS going….He’s good sucker bait though : well groomed,smarmy, can do a good cat walk, flash $1000 buck suits, everyman’s rich man fantasy. But really he’s the wolf dressed as grandma waiting for red riding hood!

  17. pollywog 17
    31 October 2011 at 1:12 pm

    You’d think Key was deliberately sabotaging his chances at re- election cos he knows from the last 3 years that he’s not up to the job. All that shit about how elections and being a politician are a lot harder than it looks.

    Well what the fuck did he expect ? Nothing is ever as easy as it looks. Just cos i seen Tony Hawk do a 1080 or Travis Pastrana double backflip doesn’t mean i can jump on a skateboard or motoX bike and pull it off just cos i got two legs, two arms and half a brain like them.

    True skill requires little effort and whats obvious is that he has no political skills of his own. Like a muppet with no hand up it’s arse, he’s just a lifeless piece of fluff.

    I say he should shit or get off the pot and let English stink it up again or let Gerry the Hut go all empire strikes back on us but for fucks sake. The man needs to grow a pair or get that operation to reverse his vasectomy cos frankly this pussy talk is fucking tedious.

  18. randal 18
    31 October 2011 at 2:30 pm

    ipredict that john keys will spit the dummy before nov 26.

  19. Draco T Bastard 19
    31 October 2011 at 2:41 pm

    The Dimpost get it right.

    But all this is beside the point. The funds from the asset sales are already in the bank. Treasury factored them into the budget and the PREFU – even though the assets haven’t even been sold yet. That’s how the government pays down the deficit so quickly. Now Key is spending that money a second time. So when he announces that he’s going to spend a billion dollars on a fund to transform schools, funded by the asset sales, what he’s actually saying is that he’s going to borrow an extra billion dollars to pay for his election promises. It’s the tax cuts scam – (‘we’re not borrowing for tax cuts, we’re borrowing for the spending from the shortfall from the tax cuts!’) all over again.

  20. Irascible 20
    31 October 2011 at 2:46 pm

    Of course what Key didn’t say with this flip flop policy release is what he has advocated before.. that investment in the school buildings and plant should be through Private – Public “Partnerships” which are designed to rort the taxpayer even more.

  21. William Joyce 21
    31 October 2011 at 4:34 pm

    Infrastructure investment fund – what a half arsed attempt at spin! Trying to put an acceptable face on unpopular policy.
    Perhaps it is true – Crosby/Textor are no longer advising them or he has gone rogue with drunken outbursts of ad hoc policy.

    Why does he have to sell assets for capital upgrades?
    The man had money to do this. We gave it to him and he squandered it.
    An unnecessary bailout of SCF occasioned by his and Bill’s failure to manage the risk associated with a guarantee scheme. Even though they had been warned.
    He gave away $2 billion in tax cuts.
    In total there’s $3 Billion right there.
     
    Instead he is going to sell assets, sack public servants, under fund health, education and social services.
    The tide is going out on that nice Mr John Key.
     

  22. Descendant Of Smith 22
    31 October 2011 at 5:14 pm

    MOE already has planned to replace all pre-fabricated buildings over the next 5 years or so I suspect that the new spending is likely to be the old already planned spending.

    Several schools I am aware of won’t be doing any more work on their pre-fab class-rooms in this knowledge.

    Schools are also currently having trouble getting their property plans signed off with delay after delay on these and is some cases MOE has been asking for money back from schools where it may not have been spent quickly enough.

    Examples of planned pre-fab replacement:

    http://www.wainuibeach.school.nz/assets/Newsletter/BoT-News-15-9-11.pdf

    http://www.avcol.school.nz/about/stage_two.aspx

    http://www.tenderlink.com/tenderers/2744.1/searchpages/BuildingDemolitionRemoval_closed.htm

    It would be interesting how much of this already planned spending ends up being touted as new spending.