Catchpole Brent: Television New Zealand Bill — In Committee 
Catchpole Brent: Television New Zealand Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:606;Page:3830] 
BRENT CATCHPOLE (NZ First) 
: 
 I rise to speak on schedule 2 in particular which deals with the land transfer from TVNZ to Transmission Holdings Ltd. The list of assets is a list of the land holdings of TVNZ. TVNZ will no longer have the asset that constitutes its transmission arm—its properties and its land. 
I would like to give the Committee an indication of how much land is in those substantial holdings. There is a valuable amount of land in the North Auckland land district in the south Auckland district and in the Hawke’s Bay district. In the Wellington district there are two huge areas—and they are prime real estate as well. The list also includes the city of Wanganui Masterton Nelson Westland Canterbury Otago and Southland. 
There is a huge amount of valuable land that can be prime real estate. When I look out of the window in my office I look straight at a beautiful lump of land with houses almost to the top of it but once that land is in that holding company it will be a prime target for selling off. This Government has set up this bill to sell off those assets. Here we go again. We are back to the 1980s. The Labour Government of the 1980s set out to sell all the assets that New Zealand owned—the Crown jewels; the family silver—and we are about to see it happen again. Those assets and that land will be placed into a holding company—and it is not bound by the charter so there is no requirement to keep them in Government hands or in the public purse. 
That land is most desirable real estate. It is in prime positions and on prime vantage spots— 
Jill Pettis 
: It’s 2 hectares at Whiritoa. 
BRENT CATCHPOLE 
: There we go! Jill Pettis is squawking over there trying to tell us that it is not so. That gives us a clear indication that it is what will actually happen. 
Dail Jones 
: She’s in the know. 
BRENT CATCHPOLE 
: She is in the know and she does not want the rest of New Zealand to know that that is what is going to happen. We saw it happen in the 1980s when the Labour Government of the time carried out its social experiment. It sold off all our assets under the pretext that there would be a trickle-down effect. Well we never saw a drop reach down to the general public. It all went off to the big corporates who made a killing.  
TVNZ will be left totally without assets and reliant on the public purse to continue in operation. Schedule 2 lists all the landholdings of TVNZ that are to be transferred into a lovely convenient package that in the future will be sold. There is no doubt that this Government has that intention. It is heading in the same direction as the Labour Government of the 1980s. Under Roger Douglas we saw every asset that New Zealand held sold off. As my colleague Craig McNair mentioned one of New Zealand First’s founding principles is to stop the sale of land and to stop the sale of New Zealand’s assets. This bill is a clear example of the fact that this Government is about to do the same as the 1980s Labour Government. Government members are jittery. They are all squawking. Mr Hawkins is squawking. Clayton Cosgrove is squawking. They know that I am right—this land is going to be sold. It is in the perfect position to be sold off. This is a disaster. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: I call Stephen Franks. 
Jill Pettis 
: Where have you been for the last 20 years? You want to get out more. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: Order! 
Rodney Hide 
: I raise a point of order Madam Chairperson. I am picking up on your point Madam Chairperson in support of you. If Jill Pettis would like to know where you have been for 20 years she could ask you appropriately and in a private place rather than scream it out in a way that takes the varnish off the walls of this great Chamber. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Ann Hartley) 
: I thank the member for his point of order. I have called for order and I have called Stephen Franks.