Hayes John: State-Owned Enterprises Amendment Bill Public Finance (Mixed Ownership Model) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hayes John: State-Owned Enterprises Amendment Bill Public Finance (Mixed Ownership Model) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Sitting date: 26 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3301. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JOHN HAYES (National—Wairarapa) 
: 
 It has been interesting in the House this afternoon listening to commentator after commentator member after member talking about history. Well a bit like the Leader of the Opposition I was in the aid business before I came to this place and here is some history. It is actually set out in  
Time 
 magazine this week on 25 June page 9. “Who wants to be a millionaire?” is the little heading and it ranks the countries with the greatest proportion of households as millionaires. The lead country has a 17 percent share. What is the name of the country? Can anybody tell me? Let me tell you. It is Singapore. Singapore is the same size as Lake Taupo it has no assets no natural resources and it has the same population as New Zealand. So how come Singapore is at the top of the pile? When I went to Singapore in 1977 to our high commission there— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: You should’ve stayed there. 
JOHN HAYES 
: —your Government was giving them foreign aid. What was one New Zealand dollar worth in 1977? It was worth 3.40 Singapore dollars. What is it today? One for one. Who has got to the top of the millionaire pile? Singapore. Where are we? We do not even rate. There has got to be reason for that. How is it that Lee Kuan Yew and his Government have moved his country from the Third World to the First World in 30 years? 
 I will tell you how it was done. It was done without corruption because it has a clean Government. It was done through pragmatic common-sense economic policies. And if we want to stay in a poor space for our community if we do not want to buy Herceptin for women who have cancer if we do not want to retire at 65 and we want to push the age back to 75 then just stick with the Labour and New Zealand First arguments. Just stick to the New Zealand First and Labour and Green arguments. I would rather listen to the community—the community that voted in the last election. And in my electorate the community voted for exactly this legislation. I stood on the platform—there was not a New Zealand First candidate but there was from Labour and there were from the Greens. They got trounced by the people in Wairarapa. Those people said: “No no no. We don’t want to listen to holding these assets. We don’t want to have more foreign debt so we can pay interest to foreign bankers offshore thank you very much. We don’t want to increase debt. We don’t want a downgrading of our credit rating. We want to sell 49 percent of some of our assets so that we can use the capital to build better skills to build better science blocks to keep the Wairarapa Hospital going in Masterton and those sorts of things.” That is what the community said. 
And I can tell you what the polls are saying now. The polls are saying that 60 percent of those polled want to buy these shares. They want to buy these shares. So I do not understand what the Opposition is on about. The community has said that it wants to build a more competitive and productive economy based on savings and investment because that is how Singapore got there. It had 30 percent savings in their economy and everybody paid. And we want to move away from foreign debt. We want to move away from foreign lenders. We want to keep the money in our country. [ 
Interruption 
] Just keep in mind Mr Peters that we see on television almost every night of the week now the damage that too much debt has done to countries like Greece a failed State. Debt has damaged Spain and it is going to come up and damage Italy. It today damaged Cyprus. We can see that damage and we do not want it in New Zealand. No we do not. My people in the Wairarapa do not want to see that at all. 
So what this legislation does is say that we will guarantee that the Government the people of New Zealand will own 51 percent a controlling interest in the shares and that we are prepared to strengthen our capital markets by attracting money from other people particularly New Zealanders to purchase these shares. And doing that will help us not go to foreign lenders. Also requiring and preventing any other than a New Zealand shareholder owning more than 10 percent will ensure widespread New Zealand investment. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Plug him in again; he’s run out of steam. 
JOHN HAYES 
: This Mr Peters is a partial share float. It is a partial share float not a whole share float as your Government presided over. It is a partial share float and the point of doing it is to broaden and deepen our capital markets— 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: This member’s broad. 
JOHN HAYES 
: But he’s not bald. We need to grow our capital markets because that is how our companies get the opportunity for more capital to grow further to add more jobs and to get into businesses like pharmaceuticals and electronics like Harvest Electronics in Masterton that will grow significant businesses and export income for this country. 
This debate is about three things: it is about controlling our national debt it is about strengthening our capital markets and it is about providing funding for new high-priority infrastructural projects. If Opposition members are so against the partial sale of these assets then I would invite them—any member of the Opposition in New Zealand First or the Greens—to stand up in this House in this debate now and give an undertaking that should they make the Treasury benches they will buy the shares back. I want to see a brighter future for my children for my grandchildren in this country. I support this legislation unreservedly. Thank you.