National – a party for wastrels

Written By: - Date published: 1:08 pm, January 24th, 2014 - 13 comments
Categories: assets, Economy, greens, john key, national, russel norman, same old national - Tags: , , , , ,

I was going to write something based on this press release from the greens “National’s mismanagement sees asset sales cost balloon to $440m“. But what more needs to be said 1.

National has cost taxpayers over $440m so far with its asset sales policy, Green Party Co-leader Dr Russel Norman said today.

The Crown Financial Statements to the end of November 2013, released today, show that the sale of Meridian and Air New Zealand added hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of the asset sales programme. When the cost of those sales is combined with the cost of the Mighty River Power sale and ancillary costs such as the Rio Tinto payout, the total cost of the asset sales now stands at $440m.

“John Key has mishandled the asset sales so badly that it has cost taxpayers nearly half a billion dollars,” said Dr Norman.

“National told us they would make hundreds of millions of dollars by selling the assets for more than their book value. Instead, they’ve lost over $200m by hocking the assets off cheaply.

“On top of that, there’s been the hand-out to Rio Tinto, Waitangi claim costs, and tens of millions of dollars to the brokers, ad-men, and lawyers.

“A decent government would be spending its time and money on creating well-paying, sustainable jobs for New Zealanders. National’s wasted its time and the public’s money on an asset sales agenda that New Zealanders didn’t want.

“New Zealanders voted by a margin of more than 2 to 1 against National’s asset sales in the referendum held in December. It’s time National listened and abandoned the sale of Genesis,” said Dr Norman.

1 Someone in the Greens should look at their bloated waffle of a headline.  And a link to a plain text version wouldn’t go amiss either.

13 comments on “National – a party for wastrels ”

  • Comments are now closed

  1. captain hook 1
    24 January 2014 at 2:02 pm

    That is the national party way. By and large they are all mouth. They cannot create wealth with productive assets so the only way they can loot the public purse is to pretend they are masters of the universe (sic) and steal off the public. Its time for donkeyote and his gang to get the order of the boot a.s.a.p.

  2. Papa Tuanuku 2
    24 January 2014 at 4:26 pm

    WTF – what’s with the reference to Treaty costs right next to the line on ‘hand-outs?’

    • Naki Man 2.1
      24 January 2014 at 7:45 pm

      That sounds like Russel thinks Treaty claims are a hand-out.

    • Hayden 2.2
      24 January 2014 at 7:54 pm

      It says “…hand out to Rio Tinto, Waitangi claim costs…”. “hand out to Rio Tinto” is a separate item from “Waitangi claim costs”. This is evident as “hand out to Waitangi claim costs” doesn’t make any sense.

      • greywarbler 2.2.1
        24 January 2014 at 9:11 pm

        That’s indicated by a comma, Naki Man, which separates one thing from another.
        Remember what they taught you at school. It was for this very purpose, so you could read about the country’s political policies and laws and know what you are talking about.

    • Pasupial 2.3
      25 January 2014 at 6:29 am

      PT

      I think that Norman is referring to the court case regarding the ownership/ guardianship of water in the leadup to the sale of MRP. That would have been a Waitangi claim (supported by article 2 of the treaty), without being a Waitangi Tribunal claim (or at least; not yet). The cost to the crown in legal fees would have been considerable and thus demonstrates another aspect of the Key government’s inept handling of their asset sale program.

  3. bad12 3
    24 January 2014 at 5:13 pm

    What more is to be said, ‘The books’ have also got a 400 million dollar hole in them from a lower than expected tax take, Slippery the Prime Minister describes this as ‘nothing’ claiming it was simply a matter of ‘timing’,

    Indeed, it’s about time those on the nice end of profit increases coughed up their fair share,

    Despite the economy being said to be growing at 3% unemployment has barely dropped by 1% and as soon as the Reserve Bank does the Bizz to the official cash rate that figure is likely to reverse,

    So much for the ‘gushing’ of all that economic good news which was in it’s entirety built upon inflation as opposed to production,

    So in the hole by nearly another billion dollars but ‘no worries’ right because Slippery the Prime Minister and the charlatan ex from Dipton have previously borrowed more ‘cheap’ money than they needed at the time,(2010-2011), so let’s plug the billion dollar lies with a bit of borrowed scrip and while we are at it ‘cook’ the books using the same scrip pretending that the budget is balanced all the while yelling ‘Look we didn’t borrow any money This year’…

  4. Chooky 4
    24 January 2014 at 8:55 pm

    “Rock Star economy”!…… we have been told by the corporate banksters

    …but what sort of ‘Rock’ and ‘Star’ are they talking about?….i hope not a nasty big meteor shower or comet about to take us all out in Godszone!

    http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/featured/10-greatest-major-impact-craters-on-earth/1403

    Henny Penny and Chicken Licken and “The Sky is Falling” bed time stories for the perches ,,,guess who is the cunning Mr Fox?

    http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=scudder&book=children&story=chickenlicken&PHPSESSID=03046958d46132d2bcf2e8ee157445c6

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9EhQkAJQBcc

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henny_Penny

    • Murray Olsen 4.1
      25 January 2014 at 7:28 pm

      I think they mean rock stars like Hendrix, Joplin, or Morrison (RIP) who ended up dying in their own vomit.

  5. Will@Welly 5
    25 January 2014 at 1:11 am

    LPrent – too harsh. Kissy, kissy, smacky, smacky. This National baby’s not for turning.
    And to compare it to a wastrel, shame!! John Key can do better than that.
    We all know he can turn a sow’s ear into a right pig, without even trying. Napoleon would be pleased.
    When he tries, he can get both feet in his mouth – a right gobulator!! Wait till Will’s and Kate get out here, then watch him waffle. And who knows, maybe even Barrack could be coming our way.
    Maybe that was the real reason Key was on the golf course – Barrack needed cheering up, he needed a laugh – the call went out, get the comfistulated gobulator Key, he’s hanging out next door.

    Money for the rich – what’s next – that’s all Key knows.

  6. Xtasy 6
    26 January 2014 at 1:22 am

    What can you expect from a drunken “captain” at the helm?

    I wonder what he drank while on Hawaii, I remember getting onto some Hinano when stopping on Tahiti once, but Key can never be far away from any bottle of “forte”, I suppose.

    Blinglish must have had a reason to opt for just a “list” position now, preparing for early retirement, as the Key factor will have regularly interfered with his work. Not much fun left on board of the sinking Titanic, that says it all.

    As for “rock star economy”, what drugs are they all on??? It is more like an economy on “steroids”, like a ChCh rebuild, boosting GDP, while it is just bringing the place back to life.

The server will be getting hardware changes this evening starting at 10pm NZDT.
The site will be off line for some hours.