David
SHEARER
Labour Leader
2 February 2012 MEDIA STATEMENT
National shows true colours on SOE sales

A plan by John Key to entice corporate and foreign buyers into snapping up shares in our power companies and Air New Zealand has been exposed in an accidentally-released Treasury document, says Labour Leader David Shearer.

"John Key repeatedly told us it would be mostly ‘mum and dad’ investors buying shares in the companies. Yet behind the scenes he was busy deleting clauses from legislation to improve his chances of selling the assets off to foreign buyers.

"The Prime Minister also reassured New Zealanders that the Government would retain control of the assets after the sale. But this document reportedly shows his own officials are warning that Ministers will in fact have very limited powers,” David Shearer said.

"John Key has been caught out trying to pull the wool over New Zealanders' eyes. He claims to be worried that Kiwis are confused by misinformation about this issue when he is the one trying to bamboozle them.

"It is now clear that John Key always intended to delete the Treaty clause from the SOE legislation.

“However, when the Maori Party threatened to walk away from its support agreement, he rushed to change it, claiming he would consult iwi. Well, that so-called consultation has now been exposed as a sham.

"The only way to retain control over our valuable state-owned assets is to stop the sale process now,” David Shearer said.

ENDS

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