McClay Todd: Mixed Ownership Model Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
McClay Todd: Mixed Ownership Model Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Sitting date: 19 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3115. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) 
: 
 That speech from Phil Goff was a little bit like watching the TVNZ Heartland channel in New Zealand—all about the past. Do you know what that speech was a snapshot of? That was a snapshot of the last election campaign here in New Zealand when the Labour Party went out and campaigned against asset sales. By comparison John Key and the National Party made a case about the New Zealand economy to the New Zealand people. Cast your minds back to the last day before the election as John Key on a bus was out meeting New Zealanders and talking to them. Phil Goff the then leader of the Labour Party was standing by a dam with a sign with a couple of friends saying to New Zealanders: “If you vote for them they will sell these assets.” That is what he was saying. 
We hear from the members opposite that this is a rushed process and that New Zealanders did not know what was going to happen. Well actually there were a wide number of issues this party campaigned on: first putting New Zealanders first; second making sure we made important choices; and third telling them what we would do. The members opposite cannot say to us here in this Chamber today and Mr Goff cannot stand up and say in this Chamber today that the Opposition did not make an issue of that because members opposite said to every New Zealander who would listen that this was what would happen. Why is that important? It is because Part 2 of this piece of legislation says that it places limits on ownership of companies named in new schedule 5. Those limits are 51 percent ownership held by the Crown. It is written into the piece of legislation. It cannot change. 
In my speech in the Chamber earlier I read out a very long list of companies that Labour when in Government in the 1980s sold. It did not campaign on those. Nobody was standing by a dam then Mr Goff. Labour did not campaign and tell New Zealanders that it would go and sell them if it was elected. 
We made a case to New Zealanders. We gave them guarantees and today in this Chamber we are meeting those guarantees made to them. Not only that but there has been no rush as this legislation has gone through. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Rot! 
TODD McCLAY 
: There was not any rush Mr Cosgrove through the Finance and Expenditure Committee. It had eight full meetings in three parts of New Zealand. On four occasions Mr Cosgrove and his colleagues had an opportunity to ask questions of our officials and did they ask a single question? No they did not. Did they ask a single question on 26 April on 2 May on 7 May or on 9 May? Not a single question but today they come to this Chamber and they expect New Zealanders to believe that they took this process seriously through the select committee. Well I reject the assertion that this was rushed. The committee had done its job. 
We had listened to every submitter. Most submitters were given as much time as they wanted. In fact Young Labour came here from a university and they were given 30 minutes—30 minutes of their time—and we showed them nothing but courtesy. But you will not hear that from members opposite here in this Chamber today. 
I believe that National has made its case to New Zealanders. We made the case to New Zealanders. None of this is being put through in urgency. Can I say to the members opposite: you may not want to remember history you may not want to own up to what you did to the New Zealand public in the 1980s but there are a lot of people who remember that.