On Friday Steven Joyce was lecturing us on the necessity of HNZ paying its regular “dividend” to the government (as per the May Budget projections).
Over the weekend Labour released its genuinely comprehensive housing policy, and Steven Joyce went in to meltdown on Twitter. Among his confused and contradictory rants, he suddenly stated that HNZ would not be required to deliver a dividend for the next 2 years:
So – dividends, yes as per budget, or no as per tweet? We the people waited for an answer. And waited. And waited. For a while it seemed like Joyce was going to have to put his money where his tweet was. Vernon Small:
Government’s $92m dividend snafu raises more questions than ministers will answer
Maybe it will go down in history as the $92 million tweet.
…somewhere in the social media hurly-burly about housing policy he managed to announce state provider Housing New Zealand Corporation (HNZC) would not be paying a dividend for the next two years.
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Given the Government’s attacks on similar calls from the Greens and Labour – that dividends were a useful financial discipline – it was an extraordinary revelation, especially to be done so casually.
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Now even in my bleaker moments I don’t imagine Joyce made the policy up on the hoof – though I stand to be corrected.
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But there are some remaining questions. When exactly did the Government accept and approve a nil dividend? And why is it being fudged? … Before the Budget day proper? When the transfer of state houses in Invercargill fell over – revealed the day after the May 26 Budget?When homelessness became a headline issue?
When housing affordability worsened as Auckland prices renewed their climb?
When Opposition parties said they would forgo dividends?
When the media pointed to big motel bills for people in urgent need of shelter?
Or was it really at Monday’s Cabinet meeting to square away Joyce cock-up?
So the Nats are winging it, but at least we have an answer. Dividends are out, right! Or – are they? Later that day:
Bill English denies U-turn after Steven Joyce reveals Housing NZ won’t pay dividend
Housing New Zealand will not pay $100 million in dividends to the Government over the next two years, following pressure from Labour and the Greens to stop treating it as a “cash cow”.
The decision has not been finalised, but Finance Minister Bill English has signalled it is almost inevitable – while denying the move is a U-turn. …
Citizens, “the decision has not been finalised”. Like Schrodinger’s cat, the dividends exist in a state of quantum indeterminacy, both required and not required, until such time as the Nats stop tweeting, and start thinking, and try to find a clue between them about how to run a country. I suggest that you don’t hold your breath.
It’s a target-rich environment on Twitter these days:
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