Press release
25 April, 2013
Asset Sales – Vast Majority of New Zealanders are Left Out in the Cold
No Asset Sales March on Parliament (27 April, 2pm)
Nationwide rallies opposing the government’s asset sales program are organised for Saturday, 27 April. In Wellington,
people are meeting at Te Aro Park (cnr Dixon/Taranaki – “Pigeon Park”) at 2:00pm, then marching through town to
Parliament. There will be music and speakers. After the march a small group of concerned citizen’s will be occupying
council land next to the Cenotaph just outside Parliament gates/grounds.
James Whioke, leading the occupation says that they will be “occupying to secure a better future for our children and
country and to stop the rip-off.”
The occupation is representative of the hundreds and thousands of ordinary “mums and dads” and our most poor and
vulnerable in society that have and will be, ‘left out in the cold’ with this Asset Sales agenda” says Aotearoa is Not
for Sale – Wellington spokesperson Ariana Paretutanganui-Tamati.
Many in New Zealand struggle to pay their power bills; this situation becomes far worse – even critical for some – over
the winter. Some of our elderly and young people will die from living in cold, damp housing. Many of our children will
be treated for preventative reoccurring respiratory diseases and will not receive the treatment they need due to
poverty. Should our power companies be floated on the share market, this situation will get worse – prices of
electricity, social inequality and fuel poverty are sure to increase.
“Already as a Nation we are being fleeced by power companies. We should be paying less for our electricity, not more,”
says Ms Paretutanganui-Tamati.
A Commerce Commissions report revealed that $4.3 billion dollars was paid in excessive profits to power companies over a
six and a half year period: that’s nearly as much as this Government anticipates getting for hocking off our State
Assets. The whole program of asset sales - not just power companies, but schools, state houses and even prisons - will
make the rich 10% even richer, while the vast majority of ordinary people in the country get ripped off even more.
“We’ve got to stop them. We urge everyone to march with us on Saturday, join the movement to stop all asset sales and
force the Government to put a freeze on their profit driven policy”.
People power will prevail!
ENDS