Dyson Ruth: General Debate 
Dyson Ruth: General Debate 
[Volume:674;Page:20051] 
Hon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills) 
: 
 Coming from Canterbury like many members of this Parliament I know that New Zealand has a lot of challenges ahead of it. To meet those challenges not just in Canterbury as a region but in New Zealand as a nation we need a Government with a plan. We need a Government with courage. We need a Government that gives our citizens leadership and vision; a Government that is prepared to take bold initiatives to get New Zealand back on its feet. We have not got that Government but roll on the end of November and we have a chance to change the Government. 
National has no plan it has no leadership and it has no vision. It is letting down New Zealanders and it is wasting the opportunity we have to be better as a nation. We need coherent and courageous policies from our Government but what are we getting? The great leap back to the late 1980s and the 1990s—asset sales. It really beggars belief that National thinks the failed policies that have people like Sir Roger Douglas and Don Brash salivating should be reintroduced into this Parliament. 
I really thought we had moved on from those tired old failed policies but that is what we are getting from National. Of course those members are dressing up the asset-sales message with their poll-driven slogans. I can tell members that those slogans are just not working with New Zealanders and Steven Joyce Bill English and Tony Ryall know that they are not working because they read more polls than just about anyone else in the country. 
We know that the mums and dads whom Steven Joyce Bill English and Tony Ryall talk about already own the power companies that National wants to sell back to them. We do not want to buy something we already own. We do not want our power companies our lakes and our dams to be bought by overseas companies. We want those assets—our power companies our lakes and our dams—to stay in our ownership. 
The other thing that I think is hugely frustrating is the dishonesty of the Government. It is not being honest about privatisation. Treasury released its Budget advice—which the Government will have received; it may not have read it but it will have received it—which stated: “Significant participation by foreign investors will be essential to achieve the Government’s overall objectives.” 
When we hear from National the mantra that New Zealand mums and dads will buy our power companies we know it is not true. According to the National Government’s own Treasury advice it will need to sell them to overseas investors to make the money that it has put in its Budgets for outgoing years. Last week Bill English misled the House. He said he had not received any advice from Treasury that said exactly the words I have just quoted from the Treasury document. Bill English should have come down in the House at the next possible opportunity to withdraw the comment apologise for it and correct it because it was wrong. He has not done that yet but it is on the public record because it is Treasury’s published advice. 
We should not be surprised by this dishonesty because it is exactly what we heard in 1999 when the then National Government said it would sell Contact Energy to mum and dad investors. What happened was that Edison Mission Energy bought up 51 percent for nearly $1.7 million and made a huge profit on its original purchase. The majority shareholder in Contact Energy is not the mum and dad investor that National promised us in 1999 when it sold it off. The majority shareholder is Origin Energy which is an Australian-based company. 
I do not mind overseas investment in New Zealand. In fact I welcome it. But there are some strategic assets some important parts of our infrastructure that New Zealanders own currently and they should remain in our ownership.