Cosgrove Clayton: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCosgrove Clayton: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 08 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9778. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]7.Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour) to theMinister of Finance: Does he stand by his statement regarding Solid Energy that “No we are not going to let it go into receivership”; if so is he committed to the ongoing sustainability of all State-owned enterprises?Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance): Yes I stand by the statement in the context in which it was made which was the possibility that Solid Energy could have got itself into severe financial difficulty in a hurry. The Government will certainly be there to support Solid Energy if there is a viable business to support and we hope that that is the case. However we would expect that a viable Solid Energy will be a smaller business with a stronger focus on mining coal and we would expect others to help participate in the restructuring of the current entity. As I said yesterday if Solid Energy is not viable the Government is not prepared to create a business that is not sustainable in order to subsidise it. The same approach applies to all State-owned enterprises.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Who is correct: the Minister of Finance who yesterday directly questioned the viability and sustainability of Solid Energy or Mark Ford the chair of Solid Energy appointed by the Minister’s Government who said that the core assets of the company are viable and that Solid Energy has a “good future”?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I think that the sustainability of Solid Energy was not just questioned yesterday it was questioned some months ago when the company got itself into pretty severe financial difficulty. We are going through a process at the moment which the chairman is closer to than the shareholders of working out whether and inwhat form Solid Energy would be an ongoing sustainable business. Over the next couple of months we will be able to answer those questions fully.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. My question was who was correct—Mr SPEAKER: Yes I heard the question.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Yes. It was not addressed. I asked who was correct.Mr SPEAKER: I think it was very definitely addressed. The member may not get an answer that satisfies him but it was addressed to the point that they may well both be correct at this stage and that further work is ongoing.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: On what date did he advise the Solid Energy chair Mark Ford that he was going to make yesterday’s public statement questioning the viability of Solid Energy and if he did not advise Mr Ford why not?Hon BILL ENGLISH: I did not advise Mr Ford because I did not make a statement of the nature that the member is saying. If the member is not aware that the viability of Solid Energy has been in question for several months then he is not doing his job.Hon Clayton Cosgrove: Why is he questioning the future viability of Solid Energy and thereby undermining the efforts of the chair Mark Ford to give confidence to lenders as the chair tries to forge an agreement to ensure the long-term future of the company or is this all about the Minister’s political expediency?Hon BILL ENGLISH: This is a serious issue as the member will know. One hundred people in the company lost their jobs yesterday. You can be absolutely sure that there are a lot of questions in their minds even if he is unaware that the company is in trouble. The Government is fully supporting the efforts of the chair and others to find out whether there is an ongoing sustainable business in Solid Energy.Brendan Horan: Will the Minister give an assurance that the $1.9 billion of coal reserves in land controlled by Solid Energy will remain in New Zealand ownership?Mr SPEAKER: There was—[Interruption] Order! I am going to ask the member to repeat his supplementary question to the Minister of Finance.Brendan Horan: Will the Minister give an assurance that the $1.9 billion of coal reserves controlled by Solid Energy will remain in New Zealand ownership?Hon BILL ENGLISH: That sort of issue will no doubt be tied up with the future of the company and I do not intend to prejudge or guarantee any outcome from the process that we are currently going through. Our focus is to see whether there is a viable business there and if so to work with other parties to restructure the current version of Solid Energy into a sustainable business. I am not going to speculate on the results of that process.