Shearer David: Mixed Ownership Model Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Shearer David: Mixed Ownership Model Bill — In Committee Speaker Recalled In Committee 
[Sitting date: 19 June 2012. Volume:681;Page:3050. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DAVID SHEARER (Leader of the Opposition) 
: 
 We are getting to the end of what is I think for most New Zealanders an obnoxious piece of legislation the Mixed Ownership Model Bill which overwhelmingly people in this country oppose. In fact consistently overwhelmingly they have opposed the selling-off of our assets—assets that they believed were theirs assets that they believed that their grandparents their parents they themselves and their children would inherit. These are our assets not assets to be flogged off to private interests. 
What we are seeing here is a wholesale shift of property and assets in New Zealand public ownership—things that we enjoy the ownership of—into the hands of a small elite of people who are— 
Hon Chris Tremain 
: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. I raise a point of order at this point of time in the debate. This is a tight part clauses 3 to 11. The Leader of the Opposition is taking a very wide-ranging debate. This is the Committee stage of the debate. It is a tight part and tight clauses. He needs to focus very clearly on those clauses in the Committee stage. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: That would have been right if we were speaking to clause 3. We are speaking to Part 1 where there are a number of very significant amendments to the State-Owned Enterprises Act the Ombudsmen Act the Official Information Act the Public Finance Act and two parts of a schedule of the Income Tax Act. This is not a narrow debate. This is a broad part one of the two most important parts of this bill. 
The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Thank you and I recognise the contribution that the member has made. 
DAVID SHEARER 
: As I was saying the point about this bill is that it actually shifts ownership through Part 1 out of the State-Owned Enterprises Act to private interests. I can tell the Committee that the bill will not be shifting ownership into the hands of ordinary mums and dads across New Zealand; it will be shifting ownership into the hands of a very small group of people who can afford to buy shares. That will not be everybody in New Zealand. In fact it will not be anywhere close to the majority of New Zealanders—not anywhere close to those people. 
The queue the Prime Minister talks about that New Zealanders will be at the front of is not the queue that I see in my electorate—people queuing to get jobs in the local supermarket. It is not that queue. That queue is for people who are desperate for jobs. They will not be trying to buy shares in these companies. They will be for a small bunch of people who have the financial resources to be able to afford them. 
 The undertaking in this legislation is that somehow New Zealand is going to be better off as a result—better off. Well I can tell the Committee right now that we are not going to be better off. Actually we are going to be $100 million a year worse off. Any of the calculations done by Treasury or done by independent consultants—whomever you want to ask—will tell you that selling off these assets will leave us in a worse financial situation than we are in right now. 
Paul Goldsmith 
: Oh! 
DAVID SHEARER 
: Absolutely! The other point about this is that everybody knows in New Zealand—every single New Zealander knows—that the price of electricity is going to go up. We were asking those very questions today in the House—why the weighted average of State-owned enterprises’ electricity prices across the sector happens to be 13 percent cheaper than that in private electricity company hands. The reason is that it is more expensive in private companies than it is under the State-owned enterprises. We know that as soon as the State-owned enterprises are privatised—under Part 1 of this legislation—the price will go up. 
Every New Zealander whom I have spoken to around the country in the past few months has said to me that that is their greatest concern. This cold snap in the last couple of weeks has indicated to us and shown to us that people are really concerned about the price of electricity and where that price is going to go. If it stops at 13 percent I will be absolutely surprised. We know what is going to happen with this legislation. We know that the three major power companies are actually well run and efficiently run. Treasury says that and independent consultants say that. So the only way that you can get an efficient company to generate more profit is by putting up the price. 
Hon Member 
: How? 
DAVID SHEARER 
: By putting up the price and that is exactly why everybody in New Zealand is fearful of what is going to happen. 
The second thing they are most fearful of is the fact that these companies are going to end up in foreign hands. The Government says that somehow they are going to be protected that ordinary New Zealanders are going to be at the front of the queue and that they are always going to stay in New Zealand hands. Well I can tell the other side that most New Zealanders actually do not believe that and neither do we. We do not believe that either. I can tell you what is going to happen. As soon as New Zealanders get these shares and they get an offer from a foreign company they are going to sell them off. Where is the undertaking in the legislation where is the undertaking in this bill in this part of the legislation—the most relevant part—to ensure that ownership stays in New Zealand hands? 
Kris Faafoi 
: There is none. 
DAVID SHEARER 
: There is none. There is no undertaking there at all. As if to console New Zealanders even less than that the Government has seen fit to take out in this piece of legislation any ability to look to use the Official Information Act or the Ombudsmen Act to ensure that we can see what is actually happening to something that is 51 percent so-called in our name. 
The Crown takes on all the risk. The people of New Zealand do not get to have even a look-in to what might be going on in these companies as a result of this legislation. The Crown takes the risk private holders of shares get the benefits and we the taxpayers do not get even a chance to have a look at what is going on in these three companies. That is a mistake. That is an absolute mistake and it is I believe trampling on the rights and the responsibilities that New Zealanders should enjoy. 
But not only that; let me accentuate one more thing and that is the social responsibility clause. The social responsibility clause ensures that all the actions of these companies would be in the best interests of New Zealand—that has gone. 
Paul Goldsmith 
: What clause is that? 
Kris Faafoi 
: Clause 3. 
DAVID SHEARER 
: It is actually section 4. 
Kris Faafoi 
: It is clause 3 actually. 
DAVID SHEARER 
: Section 4 clause 3. The social responsibility clause which would enable these companies to take responsibility and care for the communities in New Zealand has gone. That has gone. 
So what have we got as a result of this piece of legislation? We know that most of those shares will end up in foreign hands. We know that electricity prices will go through the roof. We know that we will never get a chance to have a look at what is going on in these companies because we have been denied that opportunity to use the Official Information Act and the Ombudsmen Act. The only sense of responsibility that this Act might give to New Zealanders to know that power prices and communities across New Zealand are being looked out for is gone. If that is not enough right now the Government has no clue on how much these companies are going to be sold for—$10 billion $7 billion $6 billion $6.5 billion it went up to— 
Hon Member 
: Have a guess. 
DAVID SHEARER 
: It is a guess and not even a “best guess” to quote the Minister of Finance. In the midst of a global financial crisis this Government has seen fit to sell off our most potent assets our most valuable assets overseas for a price it cannot even get close to guaranteeing. If that is not a shoddy piece of Government policy which New Zealanders will be voting down in the referendum I do not know what is.