Turning around the books

Written By: - Date published: 5:44 pm, December 13th, 2013 - 23 comments
Categories: john key, Privatisation, referendum - Tags:

So according to John Key, turnout in the referendum is so low it doesn’t mean anything to him (despite his government working hard to get turnout down).

We’re yet to see if we managed to get our 1,000,000 no votes (fingers crossed), but presumably the 1,000,000 National party votes in 2011 don’t mean much either if those sort of numbers don’t count..?

He’s done nothing wrong, even if he’s acted against the wishes of most New Zealanders.

However, as most people in the referendum will be voting to say he was wrong to sell them, this apparently means David Cunliffe needs to promise to buy them back.

This is because National have turned around the state of the books.  In direct contradiction of what his Finance Minister and number 2 Bill English said when they came into government – acknowledging the lack of debt (in early 2008 was the first time NZ had cleared its net debt since Vogel borrowed to start having trains in New Zealand) – apparently Labour left the government accounts in a terrible state.

Can I please get just a little fact checking in my news articles?

Just a wee statement of Government debt when National took office (nearly zilch), government debt now (lots, although nothing compared to private debt).

National have indeed turned the state of the books around.  Just not in a good way.

23 comments on “Turning around the books ”

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  1. mickysavage 1
    13 December 2013 at 5:52 pm

    My personal suggestion to David Cunliffe on how to respond to Key next time when he says that Labour left the country with a decade of deficits is to say that it was not Helen Clark and Michael Cullen but …

    Wall Street
    Bear Stearns
    Morgan Stanley and my personal favourite
    Merrill Lynch

    • Colonial Viper 1.1
      13 December 2013 at 5:57 pm

      Very clever.

      The ‘fact checking’ approach in of itself is necessary but not sufficient. The symbol of bankers playing fast and loose with big numbers and big assets to the detriment of us all…that’s an idea which people get.

    • tc 1.2
      14 December 2013 at 9:13 am

      Didnt blinglish praise cullen in the house for leaving them such a good set of accounts…..from which they could plunder.

      its on record so an easy one to throw straight back at shonkey showing him up for the bs’er he is.

  2. karol 2
    13 December 2013 at 8:04 pm

    Word on twitter is 67% voted “No” in the referendum.

    895,322 No votes
    4,000+ informal votes

  3. SPC 3
    13 December 2013 at 8:10 pm

    Referendum provisional results: 1,333,402 votes.
    Yes (sell): 432,950,
    No (don’t sell) 895,322.
     
    Turnout: 43.9%

  4. phil 4
    13 December 2013 at 8:13 pm

    xox
    NZ Rocket science 101
    Sell off State assets = less government influence in NZ
    Lower INCOME tax = less government services
    Government provides less services = government loses public credibility
    Change government = government loses more credibility. Further reduce Government.
    Award winning Pike DISASTER = government failure
    Fairfax, Murdock, SKY = death of Non commercial NZ Public Broadcasting
    Fonterra god zone = 100% pure cow ****
    Luxury cars sales booming = child poverty booming
    House values soaring = homelessness booming
    Wealthy migrants moving in =
    poor Kiwis moving out.
    Demockary = NZ today

    NZ leading the world = Transparency/least corrupt country in the world!?

  5. Dumrse 5
    13 December 2013 at 8:14 pm

    Piss poor turn out and hardly the result anticipated by rusty norman. Don’t get too excited. Sorry, did I forget to say the sale process is over, over. Get over it.

    • SPC 5.1
      13 December 2013 at 8:31 pm

      A 2 to 1 majority opposed to the sales is in accord with the polls. The idea that those opposed would dominate the turnout was undermined by realism – the government has effectively said that they would not listen even if 99% turned out and voted no.

    • weka 5.2
      13 December 2013 at 9:04 pm

      “Piss poor turn out”

      The last two referenda outside of a general election got turnouts of 56% and 27%. This one got 44%. I think you need to reassess your definition of piss poor.

      Then there is the issue of how many people didn’t get their papers, or didn’t get them in time.

      • happynz 5.2.1
        14 December 2013 at 1:13 am

        Yup. My partner and I didn’t receive our papers. Perhaps because we are overseas…who knows?

    • appleboy 5.3
      13 December 2013 at 10:06 pm

      Dumarse indeed. Only bigoted greedy nasty up themselves right wingers could think that non voters in the referendum support John Key.

      What the %%% Assets generations of kiwis owned sold to less than 4%. How do you sleep you right wing twats.

    • Paul 5.4
      14 December 2013 at 12:43 am

      What a nice person you are.

  6. AmaKiwi 6
    14 December 2013 at 12:36 am

    Reality check: To date 9 National MPs are not standing for re-election.

    That says it all.

    Nat-rats abandoning the sinking ship.

    • Paul 6.1
      14 December 2013 at 12:41 am

      Just wish about 9 members of the Labour caucus left as well.
      Goff, Mallard, King, ….

      • Lanthanide 6.1.1
        14 December 2013 at 9:28 am

        I have to say, I actually quite like Goff. Whenever he talks about the defense force he really sounds like he knows what he’s talking about.

      • David H 6.1.2
        14 December 2013 at 12:54 pm

        Maybe they just need a little hint that it’s time to go. Like a shitload of E-mails saying it’s time to Resign.

    • JK 6.2
      14 December 2013 at 8:19 am

      Not abandoning, AmaKiwi, more likely “pushed” to make way for more corporate-leaning MPs

  7. Tracey 7
    14 December 2013 at 8:45 am

    Keys lie yesterday was one of his worst and easiest to highlight when quoting.

    although his supporters wont address it even they cannot deny he has lied this time. It is irrefutable even by them. So now they hsve to work even harder to rationalise the lying. Funny thing is I dont believe his supporters who post here are actually all better off under national. I suspect most of them are still believing they will be beter off. Soon. In the future. They are not rwnj they are dupes and getting more willing by the day

  8. Molly 8
    14 December 2013 at 1:44 pm

    Government debt statistics could easily be found in this spreadsheet from Reserve Bank but that form of reporting was discontinued – along with a lot of other useful info in June this year. (Just in time to make it difficult to track the escalating debt up to 2014?) December 2008 had the official government debt at $18.86 billion.

    Now you have to visit Statistics NZ, Open/download the Balance of Payments and International Investment position Quarterly report, select Table 11: International financial assets and liabilities then and add two figures together to get the debt:
    Add Line 29 General Government + Line 30 Monetary Authorities to get the same data that has been reported in the discontinued Reserve Bank report.

    To save some time (and sanity) the latest figures are below:
    2012 Dec $52.481 billion (same as final data on Reserve Bank spreadsheet)
    2013 Mar $56.773 billion
    2013 June $50.913 billion

  9. Tracey 9
    14 December 2013 at 4:02 pm

    Lanthanide

    he said the books were a mess when he took over and he has turned them round and accordingly there is money for labour to buy back the assets.

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