Key to sell power companies

“Just when you thought Kiwibank was safe, John Key has opened another Pandora’s box by talking up the sale of publically owned electricity companies. Has he got asset sale Tourette’s Syndrome?” Progressive Wigram MP Jim Anderton says.

At a meeting last night in Christchurch, Prime Minister John Key told the audience that most of the value of the state assets was in the energy companies and they were likely to be sold at some point.

“This government is longing to be let off the leash so it can start selling. Every day John Key or at least one member of his cabinet slips up and starts talking asset sales.

“One thing you can be sure of. If our electricity companies are sold, prices will go up.”

“John Key refuses to learn from the past. Contact Energy was sold in 1999 for $2.33 billion. 40% was sold to American company Edison Mission. 60% was sold to 200,000 New Zealand shareholders.

“But then most of those 200,000 people quickly on-sold their shares to overseas buyers.

“Today Contact Energy is majority owned by an Australian company called Origin Energy. Only about 81,000 people still own shares in the company. And these people may or may not be New Zealanders and may or may not be living in New Zealand. We don’t know.

“When Telecom was sold, overseas owners Bell Atlantic and Ameritech had a windfall tax-free capital gain of $10 billion. They bought it off the New Zealand taxpayer for $4 billion and sold it for 14 billion.

“The same will happen to electricity if John Key and his rottweilers are let off the leash and allowed to sell off what little remains of the family silver.”

“If electricity companies are sold there is only one winner - overseas companies who get to keep the profits. The losers are the public of New Zealand who no longer get the profits from electricity ploughed back into government coffers, and as customers pay more for power bills,” says Jim Anderton.

ENDS

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