Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Goff Phil: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:673;Page:19724] 
2. 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Leader of the Opposition) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Is his proposal to sell shares in public assets like power companies an essential part of his plan to pay off debt and aid economic recovery; if not what is it intended to do? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister) 
: 
 Extending the mixed-ownership model which was pioneered by the previous Government in respect of Air New Zealand has a number of objectives. They are to free up capital on behalf of taxpayers to fund public assets like schools and hospitals and growth-promoting investments such as infrastructure and broadband; to broaden the pool of investments for New Zealand savers; to sharpen commercial disciplines increase transparency and provide greater external oversight of the companies involved which we still own a majority of; and to provide opportunities for those companies to obtain more capital in order to grow. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Is page 28 of the Budget Policy Statement 2011 correct when it states that even after partial privatisation of the public’s most valuable commercial assets—the power companies—net Crown debt in New Zealand will rise from 14.1 percent last year to 28.5 percent in 2015 meaning that under his policies net Crown debt doubles even though he has partially privatised the most valuable commercial assets? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: Yes and the reason for that is that amongst other things Budget 2011 includes a $5.5 billion provision for Christchurch. So that is to bail out the people of Christchurch. What we do know is that if Labour were in Government debt would be a lot higher than that—that is unless it introduced its land tax or its capital gains tax or its financial markets tax all of which would crush everyday New Zealanders. I look forward to campaigning against those things. [ 
Interruption 
] 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The House will come to order. I blame myself; I missed that totally. We will not have any more interjections. The honourable Leader of the Opposition will ask his supplementary question. [ 
Interruption 
] Before the Leader of the Opposition has even started to ask his question there is a barrage from the National Party members. It will cease. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Is the failure of his Government to curb that rise in debt over the next 5 years—the doubling of Crown debt—one of the reasons that 40 industry leaders interviewed by Jenni McManus said of his Government in last Saturday’s  
Dominion Post 
 that they had no confidence that the National Government had an economic strategy or vision and that it had squandered its opportunity to improve New Zealand’s economy? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: No. The increase in debt reflects first the barrage of policies we actually inherited from Labour that were unfunded uncosted unrealistic and unworkable. It is a little bit like the research and development credit that Labour went out there telling people would cost $800 million when we all know that it would cost $1.55 billion and would just add more to debt. We do have a plan. The Government is more than happy to table the plan once more. It is called the Budget and it does not include a financial markets tax a capital gains tax or a land tax. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I worry that it is turning into a contest to see who can make the most noise. Question time is not about that. [ 
Interruption 
] There will not be interjections while I am on my feet. Members know that. I will get serious about that very soon. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Were the Labour policies that the Prime Minister just talked about the same Labour policies that he promised sincerely before the election he would not change like “We will not be increasing GST.” “We won’t change the threshold for KiwiSaver.” and “We won’t cut KiwiSaver or Working for Families.”; if they are those same policies why did he promise before the election not to change them then he dishonours that promise now? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: It may be lost on the Leader of the Opposition that we are having an election on 26 November but it is not lost on the Government. The Government will be campaigning on any changes included in Budget 2011. We look forward to having that debate with the public because I would much rather go to the country with our policies than with a land tax that will see house prices falling a capital gains tax that will see New Zealanders fleeing for other countries and a financial markets tax which is just a tax on spending and which last time I looked was a tax very similar to GST. 
Hon Jim Anderton 
: To the Prime Minister— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: I will have some courtesy now. I cannot hear the Hon Jim Anderton. I must be able to hear his question. 
Hon Jim Anderton 
: If selling $19.1 billion of State assets between 1988 and 1999 did not fix the list of unmet needs in the New Zealand economy which he read out to the House today why would selling what is left be likely to fix them? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: The member actually raises a good point: what is the purpose behind this policy? The answer is to give New Zealanders assets that they can invest in as opposed to the 64 failed finance companies which emerged under the watch of a Labour Government—when Labour was in office—that that member was a Minister in. 
Hon Jim Anderton 
: What is the principle that the Prime Minister is enunciating to the House and to the country today about selling assets back to the same people who own them now? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: We want to buy more assets and the only proposition that that party has is to borrow more money put more New Zealanders in hock and give New Zealanders fewer opportunities to invest. I for one want to grow the assets in New Zealand and the invest opportunities for New Zealand and make New Zealand a more productive country. What I do not want is a capital gains tax a land— 
Mr SPEAKER 
: The question was from the Progressive party. The party policies of the Labour Party are irrelevant to that question. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Was Mr Ryall correct when speaking to the Finance and Expenditure Committee the week before last he asserted that the Government had no way of preventing the on-selling of individual shares to foreign corporates—that is the shares that the Prime Minister is intending to privatise? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: I suspect that the Leader of the Opposition is taking the Minister’s words out of context. For one reason if Mr Ryall had been asked the full question he would have said—and probably did say—that majority control is being held by the Government. He may well have read out the Treasury advice that says that widespread and substantial New Zealand ownership is achievable. He probably would have also noted that New Zealand mums and dads will be at the front of the queue as will the 1.7 million KiwiSaver accounts as will the Crown financial institutions. That is why New Zealanders will own those assets. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Was that Treasury advice the same Treasury advice that I have got in my hand entitled “Crown ownership of commercial entities” which says on page 30 that partial privatisation will lead to possible cornerstone stakes by energy multinationals in the State-owned enterprises—that is it will not be the mums and dads; it will be the big foreign multinationals that own a cornerstone share? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: The Government has made it quite clear: Kiwi mums and dads are at the front of the queue—not trade sales. But if we wanted to do some trade sales we would go to the Leader of the Opposition and ask him for advice because he flogged them off from one end of the globe to the other when he was a Minister in the previous Labour Government. 
Hon John Boscawen 
: What does he think will do more to help pay off debt and aid the economic recovery: the partial sale of power companies or scrapping the emissions trading scheme—another of the barrage of policies he inherited from the Labour Government? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: It is quite obvious that that would be the partial sale of assets because if one looks at the partial sale of assets one sees that it will generate in the order of $5 billion to $7 billion if not more. The emissions trading scheme is a net scheme of about $300 million per year. 
Hon Phil Goff 
: Does the Prime Minister accept that assets like the power companies belong to New Zealanders and that they are not his Government’s to sell; if so why is he privatising shares in those assets when two to one New Zealanders say they are against it? Is that sheer arrogance? 
Rt Hon JOHN KEY 
: We are having an election on 26 November. That will be the opportunity for New Zealanders to vote on the policies. Arrogance would be to take a position where one passes the law and carries it out without reference to the New Zealand public. We are having reference to the New Zealand public and they can make a choice. They can vote for a capital gains tax a land tax or a financial transactions tax or they can vote to buy a few shares in companies that I know they want to buy a few shares in.