Kiwibank sale to NZ Super, ACC privatisation by stealth
The transfer of part of Kiwibank to the Cullen Fund will inevitably lead to its privatisation, no matter what the Government says.
kiwibank
Kiwibank partial sell-off
This morning Michael Cullen announced plans to sell 45% of Kiwibank.
Flogging off Kiwibank
Flogging off Kiwibank is not an option.
Will Key sign pledge not to sell Kiwibank?
Phil Goff has signed a pledge that Labour will not sell Kiwibank if it becomes government. Other party leaders have been invited as well. I expect the Greens, New Zealand First, Mana, and the Conservatives will (who knows about the Maori Party). But will Key sign? National is secretly itching to sell Kiwibank, Bill English got caught out admitting as much.
Key’s dodgy scheming
*Key says that we will get to vote on his Kiwisaver cuts in the election. Truth is, they passed the law last week and the tax credits are cut from July 1. *What’s up with the dodgy Kiwibank numbers? Plans for sale? *The govt is importing World Cup workers while 270K are jobless. *Key’s jokes falling flat with pissed off voters.
What’s the sense in selling?
Papers obtained by Radio New Zealand under the OIA show Treasury told the Government that investing $100 million in extra capital in Kiwibank would bring the Crown a healthy return. Not long after, Bill English and John Key started talking about selling Kiwibank. It raises the question: if people are so keen to buy are our assets, why would we be keen to sell?
Assets the big issue for 2011
The post-Budget bump for National in the Roy Morgan polls was there but was small and it’s already evaporating. Fundamentally, National’s policies just aren’t popular,as the poll showing 80% opposition to asset sales proves. National is still pursuing privatisation by stealth (whanua ora, PEDA, water etc), giving the Left an opportunity make public assets the big issue of 2011.
Tell us what you really think
National was forced into a back down by the extremely negative public reaction to Bill English’s kite-flying over selling Kiwibank. Now, after initially supporting the idea of a sale, John Key has emphatically ruled it out… unless he changes his mind later. When it comes to other public assets, Key is giving us the semantic run around. National’s true intentions are clear.
Dancing on a head of a pin on asset sales
National really, really wants to sell assets – it’ll be worth a fortune to their rich mates who can’t seem to generate any success on their own without a government hand out. But the public is firmly against asset sales. It would be an election losing campaign issue. So, National will play a game of ambiguous promises and confusing financial moves to sell without appearing to sell.
Honest John
A short video from Red Alert. All that you need to know about John Key in less than one minute…
Key breaks Kiwibank pledge
In the May budget Key broke his pre-election promise not to raise GST.
Today, in the House, Jim Anderton foreshadowed what looks like the next unequivocal promise that’s set for the chop.
Anderton pointed out that during the 2008 TV3 Leaders’ Debate Key promised not to sell Kiwibank “ever”.
The video is embedded below.
Privatisation: The facts
There is no economic logic to selling SOEs. This ‘mum and dad’ stuff is just fluff to disguise the real agenda – taking quality companies that have been built up by taxpayers over the generations and selling them off cheap to the capitalist class so they can make a quick buck.
Softening the public up for privatisation
One thing National does very well is spend a lot of time softening the public up for unpopular moves so that the public attention has moved on by the time anything actually happens. Look at GST. The ‘rabbit from a hat’ trick of borrowing for larger income tax cuts served to divert attention from the well-signaled GST hike. They’re running the same strategy on privatisation.
Nats preparing to sell assets, despite promises
In 2008, Bill English was sprung secretly telling National members that he and Key would sell Kiwibank “‘eventually but not now”. After being caught out, English and Key categorically ruled out asset sales in the first term of a National government and said they would seek a mandate to make any sales in a second term.
Cullen to chair NZ Post and Kiwibank
Trans-Tasman reports: the Government will offer former Deputy PM and Finance Minister Michael Cullen the post of Chairman of the Board of NZ […]
News coverage of English revelations
Here’s the segment on the English meltdown from TV One last night. [I wanted to put up TV3’s as well – it’s good […]
How to harm your brand
Kiwibank, New Zealand’s supreme award winning Sunday Star-Times/CANNEX best value bank for the third year in row, the Socialist Bank of Jim Anderton, the one doomed […]