How short-sighted, how stupid is it to sell our State-owned assets at a time when the world is at a crossroads. Anything could happen if the Greek, Spanish and Italian problems enter an even more dangerous phase. What will these assets be worth if this uncertainty stays with us?
I watched the Labour, Green and NZ Fists Parties trying to hold up the bill going through Parliament. We all know that this won’t work in the end because national has the numbers. They probably know that each of their utterances on this bill is yet another nail in their coffin.
The National Party rightly claims that they have been upfront about their intention to carry through with this policy. The sad fact remains that we allowed them to win and set loose tier plans on a now angry nation. They say to requests to hold a referendum on the Asset Sales programme----NO! ---it was voted in. Ok----- our fault for being so disengaged with the political process.
Any party true to its belief in doing the best for its people should be big enough to see that things change; that sometime a reversal of policy best suits the needs of a country. They backed down over the class-size issue and will probably do the same for their ‘League Tables’ so why not bite the bullet and steer away from this crazy policy of selling the family jewels. Once sold they are gone forever unless we see the same scenarios we witnessed re the buy-back of Kiwi Rail and Air New Zealand. Do they ever learn?
The holy grail of privatisation is one fraught with the hooks of market reality. The only groups who gain are the vested interests of big businesses, many of them based overseas. Come on National--- see the light, before it’s too late! Don’t sell our birth right!
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