Henare Tau: General Debate 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Henare Tau: General Debate 
[Sitting date: 20 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3149. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon TAU HENARE (National) 
: 
 That was a great speech from Trevor Mallard. I want to talk about how Trevor Mallard can get up in this House and move a sanctimonious mea culpa—yes we did that and then we got kicked out. [ 
Interruption 
] If the Greens do not like what I am saying there is the door. He said: “Yes we sold it and we have learnt our lesson.” The more you yell the more I will yell. This is a fact. They do not like it. You know what happened? The complete difference between when the Labour Party sold out New Zealand’s assets and when we are selling New Zealand’s assets—[ 
Interruption 
] That is right. The complete difference is that Labour sold 100 percent of them. It did not worry about New Zealand. At least we went to the public. We went to the public and it was in neon lights. It was up there in Christmas lights for all to see on every road on every street and on every crescent. We said to the public before the election that our proposal was to sell 49 percent—not 50 percent not 100 percent but 49 percent. What happened? A million people decided that they could trust the National Government that they could rely on the National Government to manage the process through on behalf of Joe and Mary Bloggs. 
Never mind you getting up on your hind legs—sorry I apologise Mr Speaker—because New Zealand First is culpable. Mayor Williams sold off two parts of his council when he was the mayor for something like a paltry $11 million. It was not 49 percent but 100 percent. When Winston Peters was the Deputy Prime Minister and I think he might have been the Treasurer he sat at the signing of the sale of Auckland Airport—that was the Rt Hon Winston Peters. He was at the signing and he said to the Crown that that was capitalism at work or something like those words. 
Hon Member 
: Popular capitalism. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Popular capitalism. Well I wonder what we call this—great capitalism. It is forward thinking. Then Phil Goff yesterday wanted to get up and table in the House a list of the assets that Labour sold and it was blank. Well I tell you what I have got the list here. I have got the list here and it is $9.5 billion worth. 
Hon Member 
: Name and shame. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Name and shame? Well PostBank for a start—the post offices. Now you wonder why the old people in New Zealand still say that Labour did us in the eye because it took away our local post offices. That is what happened. 
Grant Robertson 
: Bring them back Tau. 
Hon TAU HENARE 
: Oh let us talk about bringing it back. Labour said yesterday with the Greens and New Zealand First that they want to buy them back. They want to buy the assets back. That is not true. This is what they want to do. They want to nationalise. That is a terrible word. They have said that they want to nationalise the assets that we are getting rid of the 49 percent of them. It is about nationalisation and the last guy who got away with it was Hugo Chávez in Venezuela when he nationalised all of the assets—private assets. This is what they want to do. This is what Andrew Little wants to do. He wants to allow people to buy assets but then when Labour gets to Government it is going to take them off them. It is going to nationalise people’s private property. If New Zealand First the Greens and Labour are not going to do that they should get up in the House and say they will not nationalise those assets—they will not take them out of private ownership.