30 May 2001 Media Statement
Qantas purchase of Air NZ
Alliance leader and deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton today said the Alliance will examine any proposal for the sale of
Air New Zealand on the facts, but none have been presented to the government yet.
"On the face of it, the sale of Air New Zealand to Qantas will mean the end of a national flag carrier for New Zealand.
Its international operations would be absorbed into the Australian airline and we would end up with only a domestic
carrier.
“The Alliance will be very cautious about any proposal that saw the koru disappear from global skies or which turned Air
New Zealand into a regional carrier."
Jim Anderton said the prospect of Air New Zealand being absorbed into Qantas highlighted the ruin of privatisation.
“When strategic assets like Air New Zealand were privatised by Richard Prebble, New Zealanders lost control of our
economic destiny.
"The Alliance long campaigned against the sale of strategic assets, but while we watched helplessly from the sidelines
successive governments went ahead and sold them anyway. Now we have to find a way to sort out the problems that
privatisation created," Jim Anderton said.
ENDS