Cosgrove Clayton: State-Owned Enterprises and Crown Entities (Protecting New Zealand’s Strategic Assets) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cosgrove Clayton: State-Owned Enterprises and Crown Entities (Protecting New Zealand’s Strategic Assets) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 29 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4899. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour) 
: 
 I am not sure whether that was a good impression of Dr Dolittle Mr Magoo or Sir Les Patterson I cannot quite work it out. [ 
Interruption 
] Yeah those members are animated now. Can I just say this to the House. Mr Hayes talked about the Government guaranteeing various things. What he failed to say and what every National member has failed to do when they got up in the House tonight was guarantee that the Government would not go beyond selling those assets that it has already put on the block. They never got up and said “We will guarantee we will not sell KiwiRail not sell New Zealand Post not sell Radio New Zealand” etc. Not one. In fact we know from the record of the House that Minister Joyce actually said there was no guarantee that the Government would not go further. That is the one thing Mr Hayes did not talk about when he talked about guarantees. 
It has been an interesting debate because this will come down—as Trevor Mallard said this State-Owned Enterprises and Crown Entities (Protecting New Zealand’s Strategic Assets) Amendment Bill highlights what the Government is about. If it chooses not to support this—likewise Peter Dunne—then we know it is open slather. We know that at any given time in the future these guys— 
Nicky Wagner 
: No we don’t. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Well Nicky Wagner says no it will not. But the problem Nicky Wagner has got as she joins the battle late in the piece is that none of her senior colleagues have provided any guarantee. That is the difficulty she has. Is she going to stand in the House now and provide a guarantee that the Government will not sell Kiwibank for instance? No guarantee at all. So the acid test is simply this: if those members are prepared to guarantee they will not go beyond the assets they have already taken out of the schedule and they are prepared to say they will not sell any more assets and guarantee that to the people of New Zealand then they will support the bill. If Peter Dunne is prepared to back his election promise to not sell Radio New Zealand and the rest—New Zealand Post Kiwibank KiwiRail—then he will support the bill. If those members will not then there is a gaping hole in their argument and the people of New Zealand will simply judge them accordingly. 
It is really interesting the arguments that have been put up. They are paper-thin wafer-thin arguments apart from being a bit of good old-fashioned—I do not mind it—colourful invective here and there. We all participate in that. Apparently I am responsible for all the ills of the 1980s having been a 14-year-old at St Bede’s College in the fourth form. Gerry Brownlee was hovering around. I am not sure whether he was in a capacity as a student or a teacher at that time but apparently— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Hey is it true he used to coach rugby from the sideline driving his car up and down? 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Look I would not want to bring that fact into the debate. But that is the sort of wafer-thin argument. But it is a simple thing ladies and gentlemen. Over that side of the House those members are going to signal to the people of New Zealand that either they guarantee not to go beyond those assets that they have put on the block or it is open slather. That is the simple mechanism that this bill—critical though they have been of it—will trigger when the vote happens. Very simple. If you are not going to do it then stand up. If those members are not going to do it they should stand up and say “We will not go beyond what we believe we have a mandate for.” because that is what of course they keep prattling on about. 
The fact is that their Ministers—Steven Joyce particularly—have stated in this House that they cannot guarantee for instance—as he referred to—the partial or whole sale of KiwiRail by this Government or by a future National Government. He was asked in this House and he provided no guarantee. In fact he confirmed what we already knew which is that he would not guarantee that. So that is the acid test for this crew over here. Despite all the hullabaloo and the sorts of soft tones of Mr Hayes attempting to be a latter-day statesman and trying to be logical—the problem Mr Hayes has got of course is that when he talks about what it will do with the money the difficulty is his Government has stuffed up the sales so badly and mismanaged them so badly that there is no guarantee at all that he will even—thank goodness—get a sale away. But as Mr Hayes pointed out he has already spent the money. He has already booked it. He has booked the dollars from the sale in his Budget before any sales have gone ahead—before any sales have gone ahead. 
Mighty River Power is on the skids in respect of the Waitangi Tribunal and probable court action. We know Solid Energy is in deep trouble now. We know with regard to the share price of Air New Zealand that it has been signalled it is not a good time to sell. Genesis Energy will suffer a similar fate and a similar set of issues to Mighty River Power and of course Meridian Energy is over a barrel at Tiwai Point by Rio Tinto its biggest client. So the Government has mismanaged it so badly and it has almost spent the dough—it has booked it—but it has not completed or even started one sale. So this where we are tonight—the acid test. The vote will go through and then the people will know.