David Cunliffe

Finance Spokesperson

21 June 2011

MEDIA STATEMENT

Key’s $4000 Con on Kiwi Mums and Dads

John Key’s plan to sell $6.8 billion of state-owned assets means New Zealand’s 1.6 million households would have to come up with $4000 each to keep their share in assets they currently own, says Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe.

“So much for John Key’s spin of selling these assets to Kiwi Mums and Dads,’ David Cunliffe said.

“It’s an outrageous con. There’s absolutely no way Kiwi Mums and Dads can find $4000 each to buy back what is theirs already.

“The only Kiwis who will be in John Key’s game will be the top 10 per cent of income earners and foreign investors, John Key’s play mates of choice,” David Cunliffe said.

“Kiwi Mums and Dads can see through his hypocrisy. Two thirds of Kiwis are opposed to National’s planned sell-off. Assets like our power companies were built through the blood, sweat and tears of Kiwis and paid for over generations.

“They are not National’s to sell,” David Cunliffe said. “Once they are sold, they are lost forever.”

Labour is introducing the State-Owned Enterprises and Crown Entities (Protecting New Zealand’s Strategic Assets) Amendment Bill in SOE spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove’s name to require any future proposal to partly or wholly privatise an SOE or Crown entity to gain support from 75 per cent of MPs or a majority of voters in a referendum.

“Labour will fight tooth and nail to keep Kiwi assets in Kiwi hands,” David Cunliffe said. “National wants to sell these assets so it can pay off the debt from its unfair tax cuts to top income earners.

“The first round of sales would be just the start. They have to be stopped before they sell New Zealand to foreign corporates and investors again as they did in the 1990s.”

ENDS

© Scoop Media