Topic: HELP Stop NZ's asset sales

HELP Stop NZ's asset sales 

PLEASE download this form, collect some signatures and stop National from selling off our assets - it is something we'll regret in the future if we don't act! Remember Telecom?

http://www.greens.org.nz/sites/default/files/KOA-CIR-Petition-Form.pdf

Re: HELP Stop NZ's asset sales 

The thing that gets me about asset sales is everyone says, " No, no, don't sell our assets, you're selling our childrens's future etc etc............"

......but when you mention debt they say, "That's just on paper, debt's just the fault of the banks, it's a global conspiracy."

.....but amassing debt is exactly the same as selling our country to someone else and governments that try to turn that around get turned on themselves very quickly.

Re: HELP Stop NZ's asset sales 

Hi Lastmanever,

I agree with that. We should stop borrowing money from overseas to fund 'living beyond our means' thus putting the next generation (and ourselves) in debt to foreign interests.

Re: HELP Stop NZ's asset sales 

The Government has three choices and seeing each of us is the “Government”, YOU have to make this choice. Just pretend this is your household budget you have to balance.

Borrow more fiat money and pay the 0.75% interest rate to Japan and use that money to fund capital expenditure to further develop your economy and achieve a better return than the interest rate charged. However you still have to pay the principle back and that is a debt against the next generation.

Sell some of your assets to substitute for borrowing. We are NOT selling these assets but are retaining ownership from a partial sell down.
The shares will not be particularly attractive to overseas investors as they prefer to control the asset so I suspect the vast majority will be sold to our own superannuation fund and NZers who may retain them or may sell them off for a profit.
If they do sell, then the net value plus profit will return more than the original funds into the NZ economy and this is a ‘win’ in my view.

So what, if the new investor is based overseas instead of a NZ resident – it makes no difference where the money comes from as it is the control that is paramount. The Government retains 51% voting rights – therefore holds the control for ever.

The last option is to cut back your spending, but then the re-building of Christchurch does not allow you that option so faced with the other two realities, which is the better choice?

This selection of options is how any competent business makes a critical financial decision because politics never enters the equation, however, if your politics makes you philosophically opposed to private ownership of what you determine is a strategic asset then you will not accept the sale of that type of asset. Except these assets are NOT BEING SOLD as WE still hold control. So please explain your problem and more importantly tell me how you would run the business of Government without borrowing us into more future debt than we already have – 40% of GDP.

This is precisely what most of the EU countries have done, and just how are they trading their way out? They are not. They are printing more fiat money (which is debt) and getting further into the mire until their economies crash from either hyperinflation (Germany resulting in WW2) or deflation (the ‘great depression’).
I think the Government has a better perspective on this than most critics who do not have a clue as to how to balance their books.

(I am not a National supporter and not much interested in politics but remember Telecom very well – you lodged an overseas toll call in the morning and stayed on the line for three hours holding it open as you might not get another line for the rest of the day – that is how an inefficient Government Department used to run – thank God we sold Telecom).

Rex

Re: HELP Stop NZ's asset sales 

But Rex this isn't Telecom, or Air New Zealand for that matter. It's our energy companies.
You talk of Fiat Money, but what does that money represent? At it's most basic money represents work...i.e. energy! We are selling off THE fundamental basis of the entire economy! Maybe that wouldn't matter if there were a cheap alternative.
But we have the absolute certainty of peak oil, cresting the horizon as we speak.
Now, RIGHT NOW, is absolutely NOT the time to sell off our energy!!!
It's absolutely insane.

Re: HELP Stop NZ's asset sales 

Hello samiam,

I would agree with you IF we were selling off our energy supply companies but we are NOT.
I consider our energy suppliers to be a strategic asset that must never be sold to an outside control. This would leave our Country vulnerable to the mercy of overseas bankers and shareholders. Just look at the gas pipelines though Europe and consider the possibility of war when someone ‘turns off the tap’.

My question still stands – how are we disadvantaged by a partial sell down that leaves us with a 51% controlling interest that stops the very thing you are concerned about?

We are also not selling off our energy. Now if we were talking about Maui gas being exported rather than stored in the ground until needed for our own use, you might have a point and yes we have reached peak oil and will eventually need a partial substitute and maybe ‘fracked’ gas (using the latest clean hydrocarbon method) may well be that answer.

Next to hydro power generation, natural gas is by far the cheapest fuel to produce electricity and some estimates put the world store of natural gas as exceeding 200 years supply.

Sorry samiam, but leaving out the emotion and politics and looking only at the economics and control, I cannot find a sound reason to share your concern.

Rex

Re: HELP Stop NZ's asset sales 

I could appreciate more, the desire not to sell off power company assets, if we were paying reduced prices for power that reflected, say, the fact that consumers might have effectively paid off the capital cost of the particular infrastructure e.g the cost of a hydro dam.

That is not the case as the power companies are already run, more or less, like private businesses, and the price of power reflects a desire for a reasonable return on the value of the assets, to the government, modified by the need to be price competitive with competing companies. If that price becomes too high then bringing on new generation becomes feasible.

I do have a concern about how the commercial power market will fit in with home generation like PV but the government can easily control that aspect through legislation.