Cosgrove Clayton: Urgent Debates — State-owned Energy Companies Sales—Delay of Mighty River Power Sale 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Cosgrove Clayton: Urgent Debates — State-owned Energy Companies Sales—Delay of Mighty River Power Sale 
[Sitting date: 11 September 2012. Volume:683;Page:5050. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour) 
: 
 I move  
That the House take note of a matter of urgent public importance 
. As Gerry Brownlee sort of cackles across the aisle the people’s assets are in jeopardy. We know that to be the case and we also know that the people’s assets are in jeopardy because of a Government that is now based on John Key’s political vanity and John Key’s pride because the whole of the asset sale process has been stuffed up and mismanaged from start to finish. So now what we are down to is not even I suspect ideology. We are not even down to ideology. We are down to that Government trying to protect and sustain John Key’s pride that come hell or high water he will sell the people’s assets beginning with Mighty River Power. 
The interesting point about this process is this. You would have thought that John Key the “fifty million dollar man” and I mean that with no disrespect the financial whiz-kid who probably has more experience in floating companies and initial public offerings than any member of this Parliament and many in New Zealand would see this process for what it is and would—wrong though he is because the people do not want their assets sold off—get this process right. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! Would members leaving the Chamber please do so so that the member addressing the House is able to do so. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: A person of John Key’s financial experience a person who purports to maintain the public’s confidence a person who has massive commercial experience one would have thought— 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: Even a junk bond dealer. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: —even a junk bond dealer as Mr Peters reminds me—that he would get this process right. We know of course that when the legislation was put in this Parliament he was warned about the significant issues as was Mr English as was the State-owned enterprises Minister and as was the Government as a whole. They were warned that you could shoot peas through the ownership cap. They were warned not to rush this legislation. They were warned about the issues that face Maoridom in respect of property ownership and maintenance of rights. They were warned by Tuwharetoa when they came to the Finance and Expenditure Committee and told that committee—and they were lawyered up—what they believed about the clause as it was then based on section 9. That clause was negotiated by the weekend warriors in the Maori Party who went around the marae saying that they had done the deal with National that this would all be all right and that Maori interests and rights would be protected. Then National said: “Yes we’ve done the deal. These interests are protected.” Tuwharetoa of course before the Finance and Expenditure Committee warned the Government that that clause did not satisfy their legal advice. 
The Government was warned about all this of course and it ignored it. It rammed the State-owned enterprises legislation through Parliament in such haste—I think from memory 2 or 3 months ahead of when it was due—that we now sit here with a Waitangi Tribunal recommendation to delay and halt with pending and probable court action. 
Of course the Prime Minister’s position has changed every week. He was going to do it hell or high water. He has a mandate. He did not give a damn that 80 percent in poll after poll after poll—80-plus percent of Kiwis—said they did not want their assets sold. No the Prime Minister and the National Government would simply ram this through come hell or high water. He did not care that the economic conditions on the back of a global economic meltdown meant that this was the worst market environment—the worst market environment—to be flogging off the family silver. How many initial public offerings have we had in New Zealand in recent times? Not many I would wager in the private sector. But oh no this Government knows more than anyone else! 
We know that it is the worst time because by its own admission we can look at the Air New Zealand share price and look at what has now happened to Solid Energy. Even Mr English admits they are in no condition to sell. Look at Meridian Energy being bent over the barrel by Rio Tinto. Look at Genesis and Mighty River Power. Of course Genesis will face the same sets of Treaty issues that Mighty River now faces. 
All these signals were out there and anybody with half a working brain would realise that firstly you do not sell the family silver but if you are going to do it you do not do it in the worst economic times we have seen in a generation. But oh no Bill English and John Key—John Key the economic and financial whiz-kid—know better than all else. 
We know that Brian Gaynor said that the delay and the mess-up in this process will cause gross market uncertainty. We have already had other commentators say that this whole process has been mismanaged from start to finish. 
So where are we? Not only will the New Zealand people if this goes ahead lose their asset lose their dividend stream but if Mighty River Power is eventually put on the block it will be sold off in a fire sale. There is no way that Bill English Gerry Brownlee or any of the financial geniuses over there can say that they are going to get $5 billion to $7 billion for these assets now. There is no way in hell that they can make that play. 
The second point of course is the dishonesty of the last Budget. We now know that the Budget projections are in jeopardy. The other financial whiz-kid the sort of tricky trickster Bill English booked the proceeds from the sale of assets that have not been sold—now delayed some halted and maybe some or all I hope never sold. Those proceeds from the sale were booked in the Budget. Of course he did not book—he did not book—the revenue loss and the dividend stream loss that would flow from that sale once it occurred. 
Phil Twyford 
: That’s right—dishonest. 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: That as Mr Twyford said is—it is not just dishonest. That is gross dishonesty. We know that this has been mismanaged. I say the one benefit of the tribunal action and the halt is that every day that the New Zealand people maintain these assets within public ownership is a good day for our communities and is a day when they can still receive dividends which will be put into hospitals and which will be put into schools without the sale of those assets. 
 Of course the other great lie and untruth of this Government is that first it said it was about debt then that it was not about debt. It was not about debt; it was about buying other assets. Then when you unpack that of course it was about selling revenue-generating assets and buying non - revenue-generating assets like schools and roads. Last time I checked when you build a school unless it is a charter school or a private school which this mob pours dough into your local primary or secondary or intermediate school does not make a profit or a return to the taxpayer and nor should it. 
So the economic equation and proposition that these geniuses put to the public—because it sounds good does it not as a spin line—was: “We are going to sell some assets and we are going to buy other assets.” To the sort of great unwashed that might sound like a good line until you unpack it and realise that when selling revenue-generating assets and buying non - revenue-generating assets—I wager colleagues that even Gerry Brownlee with all his fingers and toes could work that out and calculate that—at some point the money runs out. It is gone. It is over because you are buying a series of non - revenue-generating assets. 
I say to—[ 
Interruption 
] Well Mr Brownlee sort of waxes on of course. I say this. The people will now get an opportunity to express their will and they will do that through the asset sale referendum which I believe with a high degree of certainty will now occur. In that referendum I would wager—and I am happy to take a bet maybe for a McDonald’s voucher or something like that with Mr Brownlee—that it will be 80 percent or maybe even more of New Zealanders who will vote to retain their assets. 
Then we are going to have an interesting series of debates in the 2-odd years leading up to the next election because there will be a problem at that point with the Government arguing in respect of mandate—in respect of mandate. If there is a referendum and there will be and if the response is overwhelmingly in opposition to the Government’s position and I believe it will be then no mandate will exist for the Government to proceed. So that is the other leg of the stool that is going to be cut out from under it. 
I thank those in other places who have ankle tapped this process. I thank them for this because it gives the ordinary citizenry in our community the opportunity to get those signatures—to get those 310000 signatures—to force this mob over here to have a referendum and then the people will have their say. 
In mismanaging the blunder over water this Government has opened the Pandora’s box in relation to property issues of State-owned assets because of its mismanagement. These issues will be examined in detail now as each and every one of those assets moves closer to the sale door. Because it has stuffed it up I predict that in the next 2 years we are going to hear a lot about reallocating priorities. We are going to hear a lot about Budget projections that have somehow moved and the Government is already prepping the ground of course because it keeps talking about: “Well if it doesn’t go ahead what’s going to happen? Oh we’re going to have to get into more debt.” Well I say to the Government that if it had not chosen to put in place a tax cut that gives those at the top the most and our communities at the bottom nothing as a result of which we are borrowing 300 million bucks a week then I suspect New Zealand might be in a different situation in respect of debt regardless I would argue of the global financial meltdown. 
So here are some questions for Mr English. What is going to be the position on Mighty River Power? We know the tribunal talked about “shares plus”. The Prime Minister of course immediately rubbished that rubbished the hui has corralled all his members and will not allow his members to go because they just do not want to know. It is hear no evil see no evil and pull the blankets up at midnight and hope the goblins go away—hope the nightmare is over. And when the blankets come down the sun will come up and all will be well. Well sorry the best thing this Government could do is get off its backside go to the hui listen to the communities and maybe come back with some proposals because it is all over the place. First it rubbished “shares plus” then it said it was going to go out and consult on “shares plus”. No one really knows what “shares plus” means but first it was against it then it rubbished it then it said it was going to go out and consult on it and then it said it would not participate in a national hui which I would have thought was a pretty efficient way to deal with a large body of our citizenry—a large body of our citizenry—called the Maori people. But oh no it will not go. I say to its Maori members over there— 
Shane Ardern 
: Is Labour going? 
Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE 
: Labour will be represented do not worry about that Shane. Labour will be represented. I say that what the Maori members in the National Party should do is say to their chief: “We’re off. We’re going. We are not going to be stood down. We are going to engage in the democratic process and we’re going to go zip-lock our mouths and listen to the people at that hui.” and not be sort of trodden on by the tribal chiefs in the National Party. 
I do say in passing that it is extremely interesting that the Maori Party which purports to represent all things Maori all people Maori all culture Maori ain’t going to be within cooee of that hui—no disrespect. It is not even going to be anywhere near it. I say this. The challenge for the Maori Party is the same as it is for the National Party. The Maori Party pretends it is not in Government. Those members are Ministers of the Crown. They have the warrant they have the quarter of a million bucks’ salary they have the LTDs. They crow and crow that they represent Maori except they sold Maori out over section 9 in the State-owned enterprises legislation. They said they had sorted it out in terms of property rights issues. They represent Maori. They represent them so well that they boycott the national hui that the Waitangi Tribunal recommended that they go to. The question is why. Did they fall into line with the National Government sort of led by the nose? I would say that is a fair chance. Well they should show some guts. They should show some guts and they should actually attend that hui and listen to their people. 
So I say to Mr English could he use the debate today to explain to us how he is going to unbundle such a mess that has occurred? He and his Government have had what nearly 4 years to put this policy in place. At every turn from the passage of the legislation to the submissions being truncated to the water rights issue—having been warned of that—to no guarantee in the legislation that mum and dad Kiwis will be in the queue to a loyalty scheme that they said they did not need because Kiwis were going to keep these shares ad infinitum into the future. Then the Government came out with an expensive loyalty scheme where those who cannot afford to buy the $1000 to $2000 blocks of shares will pay for all the people who can but it did not need it of course because people believe in this so much! What a fiasco! What a stuff-up! I just ask Mr English aided and abetted by his colleagues whether he might want to spend the next 15 minutes explaining how he is going to unbundle this why we are preserving the Prime Minister’s pride and whether he will actually pull the pin listen to the people and keep the people’s assets in Crown ownership.