Cosgrove Clayton: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Cosgrove Clayton: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:653;Page:1966] 
5.  
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour—Waimakariri) 
 to the  
Minister for State Owned Enterprises 
: Why is the Government seeking increased dividends from State-owned enterprises in the current economic climate? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) 
 on behalf of the  
Minister for State Owned Enterprises 
: Each State-owned enterprise has a stated dividend policy in its annual statement of corporate intent. The statement of corporate intent that each is operating under was signed off by the previous Labour Government. We are expecting that State-owned enterprises will adhere to that policy. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Does the Minister not agree that the primary concern of State-owned enterprises in the current economic climate should be to save jobs rather than to line the Government’s pockets with increased dividends? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The primary concern of the Government in the current economic climate is that State-owned enterprises pay a great deal more attention to running their businesses. In recent years they have spent more time on managing news coverage of Ministers and complying with the no surprises policy and not enough time on controlling their costs. 
Katrina Shanks 
: Has he seen any reports of Governments being prepared to accept a lower dividend than in previous years? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Minister has seen a report from June 2007 that states that the then Labour Prime Minister Helen Clark rejected suggestions that the Government had a responsibility to reduce power prices despite the Government having collected $1 billion in dividends from its State-owned enterprises in 2006. This year the interim dividend is $45 million. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Does he not accept that any undue pressure on State-owned enterprises in the current economic climate to return greater dividends to the Government will lead to an increase in lay-offs higher prices for consumers a decrease in services or most likely a combination of all three? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: No. Every Government organisation should be paying attention to the effective delivery of services to the public. We think that State-owned enterprises could focus on that more than they have done because in recent years they have spent too much time paying attention to the Government’s political needs. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Does he think that the 90 jobs to be cut at Television New Zealand the 52 jobs already lost at Quotable Value and the expected redundancies at New Zealand Post are acceptable responses from State-owned enterprises to the Government’s demand for better financial performance and how many more jobs is he prepared to see lost in State-owned enterprises in order to meet the Government’s unrealistic goals? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: In each of those organisations the fundamental problem is that their revenue is dropping. It is actually nothing to do with Government demands and a lot to do with the fact that the money coming in each week is less than it was. That means that they have to restructure their organisation. I have to say that many New Zealand businesses and Government and non-governmental organisations are unfortunately experiencing the same phenomenon.