Cosgrove Clayton: Standing Orders — SessionalText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCosgrove Clayton: Standing Orders — Sessional[Sitting date: 26 September 2013. Volume:693;Page:13790. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CLAYTON COSGROVE (Labour): In case anybody missed that wonderful speech by the Minister for State Owned Enterprises that was the worst-performing Minister in the history of State-owned enterprises in this country. It is interesting that we are actually debating this motion—a motion that follows a litany of stuff-ups and a litany of incompetence by that particular Minister in all aspects of State-owned enterprises. Primarily this motion should have been before the House when the mixed-ownership model legislation was put in place in June last year but that Minister’s incompetence in this portfolio is staggering—absolutely staggering.We agree with this motion. We agree with it because it will allow finally some accountability of mixed-ownership model companies; those that have been half sold off to the private sector like Mighty River Power and those that are likely to be sold off in part like Meridian Energy. But if you look at the litany and the shambles this is the peak of it for that Minister. On the matter of State-owned enterprises John Key in June 2011 said that the mixed-ownership model would yield after the sales $7 billion to $10 billion—that is how much he said would be raised from the sale of these assets. He then claimed it would be $5 billion to $7 billion and he now claims after the 25c I think or 10 percent drop in the Mighty River Power shares and the over billion-dollar devaluation in Meridian Energy that we are going to be—I think this is the quote from the Prime Minister—“at the bottom end of the $5 billion range”.The question for John Key and the question for this Government of course to quote John Key is that he now needs to show this House and show the people of New Zealand the money the cash. Look at the promises that were made in respect of the Future Investment Fund from the sale of State-owned enterprises—do you remember that? The Future Investment Fund was going to fund hospitals and schools—[Interruption]—kindergartens and other things; kittens or whatever.Then we find out two things. We find out that the money that is supposedly going to be raised from the sale of these assets has been spent 10 or 15 times over but worse than that—worse than that—the money is set aside not for hospitals and schools but so that there is say $40 million to pay for the free shares of Mighty River Power and $100 million to bail out Solid Energy. Then if we have a look at some of the other allocations you would have to say it is simply business-as-usual expenditure—not hospitals bridges roads and schools. We have the immigrant management systems closed captioning on Parliament TV and a replacement ground station for search and rescue satellite systems. It is a whole lot of business-as-usual expenditure—appropriate expenditure but business-as-usual expenditure—that should be coming out of budgeted expenditure not the revenue generated from the sale of these assets.Then you have got to look at the combination of factors that have led to where we are today. If you look at Meridian Energy Meridian Energy of course is balanced against the huge risk of RioTinto going south before 1 January 2017. So what is the Government’s plan with that? The Government wanted to get that fiasco off the books as quickly as possible. The Minister has been asked time and time again why it was that he and the Minister of Finance threw in $30 million worth of public money to a company making billions of dollars on a multinational basis every year. He cited repeatedly that this was to secure the jobs of those Southland workers; this would create security. He even accused this side of the House of being anti-jobs or being anti those Southland jobs. Then we got him on radio and we asked whether he had got a guarantee for the $30 million pieces of silver given to RioTinto that those jobs would be secure. The answer was no—that was on Kathryn Ryan’s show. Then he was asked whether he had even bothered—even bothered—to ask for a guarantee to secure those jobs. The answer—no.That gave the lie—the absolute lie—to the claim that $30 million of taxpayers’ money a halving of the notice period and yet cheaper electricity for RioTinto was all about securing those Southland jobs because the Tuesday before the ink was dry on the cheque we know from theSouthland Times that RioTinto had signalled the redundancy of maintenance workers and a restructuring. And the Minister of Finance aided and abetted by the Minister for State Owned Enterprises did not even have the brains or the gumption to ask RioTinto—even if they were not going to get it; at least to roll the dice and ask—whether it would guarantee those jobs of those Southlanders up to 1 January 2017. Now they say that the reason they did not have the brains or the gumption to ask was because they do not interfere. Well they interfered in the private sector to the extent that they picked a winner and used $30 million of taxpayers’ money to pick that winner—and to halve the notice period which signals to anybody buying Meridian shares that if they pull the plug we know what will happen to demand and supply and the value of that company.So we welcome this motion in respect of Mighty River Power. We welcome it because it will actually allow a select committee process around a financial review. It will not of course allow us to gain information through the Official Information Act and it will limit what answers can be given in this House by the Minister of Finance—the shareholding Minister—and the Minister of State Owned Enterprises because of the so-called mixed-ownership model. What we have got after all this—after all this—is a litany of broken promises and a shambles in terms of management of assets like Solid Energy.I mean you have got to hand it to Tony Ryall. This guy has made history in this Parliament. This is the worst-performing Minister for State Owned Enterprises in the history of this Parliament since State-owned enterprises were enacted in the 1980s. Only that member and Bill English could step aside and stand there and watch as thecoal price moved south. You just had to pick up the paper like the local village idiot to work that one out. After literally 2 years of advice from Treasury and from their own scoping consultants UBS—which was charged ironically with scoping the company for sale—after a litany of $23 million worth of bonuses that did not go to the blokes and the women in the pit but went instead to the guys in the flash suits in the palace in Christchurch; after exorbitant expenditure; after Bill English with the platinum-plated spade goes down to the lignite plant in Southland tosses the first sod—tosses the first sod—and sings its praises only to have it close it later on these guys just sat there and let it slide into the sea. An export award - winning company Solid Energy slid into almost bankruptcy.We wait with bated breath—bated breath—over the next few days and weeks to see what sort of deal the Minister of Finance has cut with the banks to try to get rid of or minimise the taxpayer’s exposure to $380 million worth of debt. That was all under his watch—and all under the watch of the Minister for State Owned Enterprises. They are totally 100 percent responsible. They get up occasionally and say they took action and that there is a new board in Solid Energy. Well the problem with that proposition is that no one got sacked. A few people resigned no action was taken against them and there was no intervention by this Government.So the poor old folks who have bought those shares in Mighty River Power are now 10 percent down—10 percent down. About 440000 people pre-registered to buy those shares. What did it work out at? One hundred thousand actually bought them. Opinion polls show—I think it was the TVNZ one—that 87 percent of people do not want a bar of Meridian Energy. And I will tell you—you look at the television advertisements you look at the massive consultancy and legal expenses that this Government has used to try to get these floats off the deck and that is hundreds of millions of dollars. Yet they baulk at the cost—which is what 9 million bucks—of a referendum on asset sales so the people of New Zealand can actually have a formal say and give this lot a good political boot in the backside and scuttle any moral authority they may believe they have through a referendum that would show they do not want their assets sold.So John Key is quite happy to throw 30 million bucks at a multibillion-dollar multinational company to get—what for the taxpayer? Nothing; not even any job security. But he is not willing to have a referendum. He criticises those who organised that referendum and organisations like Grey Power and others and those in the community who want to have a say. He says: “No 9 million bucks is too much.” We support this motion and we look forward to putting Mighty River Power’s feet to the fire.