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:3066. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
TODD McCLAY (National—Rotorua) 
: 
 What I would say to the last speaker David Parker who raised the issue of process through the Finance and Expenditure Committee is that the time for crocodile tears is over. That member and other members of the select committee had eight long meetings to ask any question they wanted to. The committee gave every opportunity at every meeting for questions to be asked. And what happened? At the eleventh hour when it was time to deliberate they were raised. So when— 
Hon David Parker 
: I seek leave to table the minutes of the Finance and Expenditure Committee— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: Order! The other day I cautioned the member that he should not interrupt a member on his feet. I am not denying the leave being put; I am just saying that there is a convention. 
Hon David Parker 
: Misrepresenting. He invites it. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: Well it is not for the Chair to judge the veracity of the comment. This is a debating chamber. Other members can respond and the member can between speeches seek to table documents. 
TODD McCLAY 
: I recall—and this is a part of my speech not speaking to the point of order—that that was put up last week and members tried to table it. It is time to move on and that was the point I was making. Members opposite are telling us about a rushed process. Well let us put our mind back to the comments that the Hon Tony Ryall made earlier. Let us talk about a rushed process and how people change their mind about what is good one day and not good the next. We heard from Tony Ryall that Phil Goff Annette King and Trevor Mallard were part of this House as Ministers when $10 billion worth of New Zealand assets were sold—not partially sold not 51 percent held and guaranteed in the Crown so that the Crown had the absolute say; no 100 percent were sold. Of course no member opposite who was a member of the Labour Party then or today would say that that process was changed. 
New Zealand Steel was sold in 1986. What was that? It was done under urgency. Petrocorp was done under urgency. For the Post Office the first and second readings were under urgency and there was no select committee stage. It was all right back then but here we are today in this Committee with members opposite saying that they did not have an opportunity to ask important questions that they needed to ask. There were more than eight meetings of the committee where Treasury our advisers was there. Did they raise those issues? Not on the first meeting not on the second meeting not on the third meeting or the fourth or the fifth or the sixth or the seventh—but on the eighth meeting when it was time for the committee to deliberate that is when they decided to stand up and all of a sudden it was important to them. 
Air New Zealand is here as part of this bill today the Mixed Ownership Model Bill and we considered this in the select committee. Air New Zealand—what happened there? Labour got rid of all of it way back in 1987 under urgency—again under urgency. There was not an opportunity for the New Zealand public to come before us—not an opportunity for the New Zealand public to come and have their say. It was done under urgency. And then we have the Tourism Hotel Corporation. Guess what? It was done under urgency. The only thing that was not urgent about that piece of legislation was the service you got at the time from those hotels. And can I tell you as some of them are now in my electorate they do very well. Does the Government own 51 percent of those? No. Labour sold all of them. 
Here is the one you will hear a lot about. You will hear all about service you will hear all about what is wrong and you will hear all about why it should not have happened. In 1990 Telecom Corporation of New Zealand was sold under urgency—100 percent of it was sold under urgency. Can I say to the last speaker that the time for those crocodile tears the time to pretend that you care about New Zealanders is gone. You had an opportunity in our committee; you did not take it. The member opposite did not take it in all of those meetings. 
There is a difference between what we are doing on this side of the Chamber and what members opposite pretend they care about. And what is that? Well it is about debt. They will tell you that this makes no difference at all but look at what has happened in Greece over this last weekend. Look at the challenges that they face all over Europe because of debt. Members opposite will say to us: “It’s OK let’s borrow a bit more; let’s keep investing in assets by borrowing a little bit more. It doesn’t matter.” Actually what they will say to you is “Let’s push the age of retirement up by 2 years.” to pay for the woeful decisions they have made and will make when it comes to spending. But that is not fair to New Zealanders and I recognise that members in other parties in Opposition also believe that it is not fair to New Zealanders to make them work harder for bad economic decisions that that party has made. 
Our debt level is to peak at 30 percent of GDP. That is right—that is $72 billion of debt that New Zealand will have. Well guess what? We heard when we were in the select committee about how much of New Zealand the Crown owns—$245 billion of assets all over the country. We aim to grow these over the next 4 years to $267 billion of assets. What we have also said to New Zealanders is that there will be 3 percent of those assets that we will offer you the opportunity to purchase—3 percent. Not only that but we will not do what Labour did through the 1990s when it gave away $10 billion of New Zealanders’ assets without any consideration of keeping them for themselves without any care about—