Dunne urges caution on asset sales

UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne is warning the Government to be careful about any potential sale of State assets.

He said selling State assets for no more than ideological reasons would rightly arouse strong and widespread public opposition.

“Simply selling assets on the vague premise that they would be better off in the private sector is not a good enough argument, but equally Kiwis are no longer in Labour’s camp of ‘shock, horror, hysterics’ at the very idea of some degree of asset sales.

“The vast majority of New Zealanders certainly think privatisation went too far in the past, but they may now be more open to a proper discussion on some degree of private ownership – New Zealand ownership – of some assets,” Mr Dunne said.

“There is an argument that the capital base of some state-owned businesses needs to be expanded to enable them to remain competitive and to grow, and that the State is not in a position to fund this expansion.

“I think New Zealanders are open to that argument – but they will not tolerate open slather, and National needs to understand that.

“If the Government wants to revisit its existing policy, it will need to be very specific about its plans, including the scope for options short of privatisation such as publicly listed debentures, or limited share floats to raise the capital required,” he said.

Mr Dunne said he detects no public enthusiasm for the sale of assets like Kiwibank, particularly if this would see their ownership transferred overseas.

“I think there could well be more public support for ‘Mum and Dad’ type investment arrangements, provided the case was made well in advance and there were built-in safeguards to ensure majority New Zealand ownership would be retained.

“Those safeguards could include restricting the number of shares institutions might hold, and limiting the sale of shares to New Zealand-owned institutions

“This would stop a long way short of privatisation as we have known it in the past,” Mr Dunne said.

ENDS

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