INDEPENDENT NEWS

National’s desperation in ‘new but old’ Crown company

Published: Sun 23 Jul 2017 06:52 PM
National’s desperation in ‘new but old’ Crown building company
New Zealand First says the government is so desperate to look as if it is doing something, anything, it has rebranded Crown Fibre Holdings as Crown Infrastructure Partners.
“National is hitting the panic button because car makers label this sleight of hand ‘badge engineering’,” says the Rt Hon Winston Peters, Leader of New Zealand First and Member of Parliament for Northland.
“Just changing the office sign, website and business cards may excite National, but it’s as empty as a rain gauge in the Sahara Desert. The simple reality is this – the grandiosely named Crown Infrastructure Partners will not itself build a single house, school or road.
“All it will do is award and administer contracts from its offices in downtown Auckland. That’s what Crown Fibre Holdings and its 18-staff did because the actual work of building stuff is done by others.
“That’s also where you get the cost escalation because they’re middlemen doing something government should.
“If National wants something to actually happen then it needs to stop turning to lawyers and accountants and start employing tradies and architects,” Mr Peters said.
ENDS

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