Goff Phil: Mixed Ownership Model Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Goff Phil: Mixed Ownership Model Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Sitting date: 19 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3113. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Labour—Mt Roskill) 
: 
 I want to speak to my amendment on Supplementary Order Paper 52 amending clause 16 of this bill the Mixed Ownership Model Bill. It inserts new section 45Y which is headed “New Zealand ownership”. I want to read it to the Committee; it is very simple and very clear. It states: “No person (other than the Crown) may have an interest in shares or securities of a mixed ownership model company unless they are registered to pay tax within New Zealand.” Subsection (2) applies the same thing to companies and other entities. 
What this does is it says that before we sell the shares there must be an enduring relationship between the person or the organisation that purchases the shares and New Zealand. That means according to the definition in the Income Tax Act of a “tax resident” that the person must live in New Zealand for a minimum period of time each year—1 month out of 12. I accept that this amendment is a second-best solution. The best solution is not to sell the shares at all. That keeps the shares publicly owned—owned by all the mums and dads of New Zealand owned by Kiwis as a whole and built by our forebears. When I say that Mr Chairman Tisch I say that in relation to your electorate I think with some real feeling. My wife was born in the Waikato in a little town called Mangakino. Her dad came back after 4 years as a prisoner of war and he worked on the Whakamaru Dam. I tell you that Pat Moriarty would turn in his grave if he thought that that asset was being sold. He would turn in his grave twice if he thought it was being sold overseas. 
I want to keep this Government honest. I am from the Opposition and I am here to help the Government. This is what John Key said just a couple of days before the election: “We’re giving people a commitment”—mark that word “commitment”—“that 85 to 90 percent of the entire company”—meaning the power companies—“will be owned by New Zealanders. That is my commitment to them tonight.” I say this: here we are in the Chamber tonight debating the legislation that the Prime Minister was talking about and I want one member of that National Government to take the call and tell the House where in this bill this commitment is delivered. It is not. That was pure deceit by the Prime Minister. He promised something to New Zealanders and he never delivered it. He never delivered it. I know what New Zealanders feel about that. They think they have been had. They accepted the word of the Prime Minister—nice guy lovely smile. He has broken his word and he has broken every other promise that he has made to this country. 
Just the other day he was talking about class sizes and he said he would not be so arrogant as to ignore what a majority of New Zealanders thought. Well I ask the Prime Minister to apply that logic to the question of ownership of New Zealand’s assets. Every public opinion poll has shown two to one that New Zealanders do not want to sell their assets. What is it about that that National does not understand? I was watching the Bay Roskill Vikings play against Manurewa the other night. I acknowledge my colleague from Manurewa; they won by 66 to 10. In the hour and a half that I had to walk down both sides of the sideline I got 123 signatures calling for a referendum so that we do not sell our assets. Ninety-eight percent of them signed—98 percent—and that is really interesting; it is the same percentage of the 1450-odd submissions to the Finance and Expenditure Committee that oppose this Government selling New Zealand’s assets. They do not want the assets sold. The National Party in Government is doing something against the wishes of New Zealand and that will come back to haunt it. 
That National Government knew all along what it was going to do. I have the Treasury documents here advising National about the assets. The Treasury report says that significant participation by foreign investors will be essential to achieve the Government’s overall objectives—a significant proportion. When did the Prime Minister acknowledge that in the debates before the election? Where in this bill is there anything that acts on the Prime Minister’s commitment to New Zealanders that maybe only 10 percent of those assets would be sold off? We know that that is not going to happen. There is a 10 percent figure in here. It says that no person should be able to buy more than 10 percent of the entire assets. Do you know what that means? It means that two Russian oligarchs two Chinese State companies and one American pension fund could buy up half of New Zealand’s energy companies not only to own half of the shares but also to effectively control them. That is a farce. That is a disgrace. Those National Party members of Parliament particularly those who will lose their seats next time should bow their heads in shame because they will vote tonight against the commitment that the Prime Minister made to New Zealanders. 
Further than that Treasury says that you have to sell to foreigners because that will push up the price of shares. Yes that is true. And what happens when you push up the price of shares? It means that people pay more for them and they want a bigger return on their investment and that means higher electricity prices. I ask any one of those National MPs—the lobby fodder that the backbench represents—whether they will go back into their electorates next week and say: “I went into the lobbies today to vote for a measure to put your power prices up by $300 a year.” Will one of them have the courage to do that and be honest with their electorate? Not on your life. 
We know what is going to happen with this sale. Contact Energy was sold by Bill English in 1999 and there were first of all 225000 investors. Within 10 years that was 80000 but even that does not tell the whole picture. Did you know that 80 percent of the shares of Contact Energy which was once proudly owned by New Zealand are owned by 0.1 percent of the owners—not 1 percent; one-tenth of 1 percent of the shareholders own 80 percent of Contact Energy? And which National backbencher thinks that it is a great idea that $1.5 billion in New Zealand funds have left this country as dividends to the new Australian owners? Which one of them is proud of their National Party record in that regard? Which one of them will stand up? It takes only one of you to stand up in the Chamber tonight and vote against your Government and you can defeat this measure. Which one of you will have the courage to do that? 
Hon Members 
: None of them. 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: Well sadly I fear that that is right. 
The Government’s election commitment was not to let most of the shares go into foreign ownership. Nothing in this bill tonight delivers on that commitment. What word do you use for a commitment that you do not intend to keep? 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: Deceit? 
Hon PHIL GOFF 
: It is deceit. There is another shorter word but I cannot use it in the Chamber. Pure and simple that was a deceitful commitment by John Key to the people of New Zealand that he never intended to keep. When the New Zealanders turn out to the polls in 2014 they will remember that they were lied to. They will remember that. They will remember that they were deceived. They will remember that National never delivered on what it promised and it delivered on a lot of things that it never promised including the cuts that are happening across the board. 
One sign in the 1950s of this country’s progress in moving forward was the building of our hydro dams and our geothermal stations. We did not know then but we know now that that is one of the most important strategic assets that we have as a country: clean sustainable renewable energy. And what is this National Government going to do with that with its cling-on supporters ACT and United Future? They are going to sell those assets down the road. They are going to sell them at the bottom of the market so that the people—the foreign investors—who buy them will make a killing. And when they make a killing in selling them they will not be paying any capital gains tax on it either. Our parents did not make the sacrifice they did in building up these assets to have them sold out by this National Government which is a sell-out Government.