Luxton CameronCAMERON LUXTON (ACT): Thank you Mr Speaker. What we saw occur with the Aratere on Friday night was extremely concerning. It was a great relief however that there was no loss of life and everyone on board the ship was able to get off safely. But this actually does raise some serious concerns about KiwiRail and KiwiRail's mismanagement. In ACT's view KiwiRail's 100 percent Government ownership has been a contributing factor to the general mismanagement of the Cook Strait ferry service in recent years.ACT's policy is to add KiwiRail to the mixed-ownership model. By selling 49 percent of the Government's shares this would ensure KiwiRail has the accountability and flexibility needed to keep the ferry service running properly—100 percent Government ownership means KiwiRail isn't subject to commercial accountability; KiwiRail's investment decisions are dominated by politics rather than commercial realities.Right now KiwiRail's commercial performance is monitored by a small overworked team at Treasury. In Budget '24 the budget for Crown company monitoring—that's all Crown companies; not just State-owned enterprises (SOEs)—was roughly $5 million whereas the net asset value of SOEs alone was roughly $40 billion. That's a management fee of 0.1 percent. Even the cheapest private equity funds charge around 1 percent plus performance fees. Either the Government is getting a bargain of the century or many taxpayer assets are being seriously under-managed.By contrast the partially owned electricity companies and Air New Zealand have dozens of analysts from private sector investment funds and stockbrokers poring over their quarterly returns and other performance data. Those financial companies often have their own skin in the game as shareholders and would-be shareholders. Their analysts can ask executives questions and when they are truly dissatisfied with their performance they can send a clear signal by selling their shares or advising their clients to do so. The stock price gives a signal to executives as to whether the market supports their business plan. That means things like maintenance schedules capital investment programmes are rigorously monitored.With all the will in the world the Public Service has neither the incentive nor the means to subject their portfolio companies to such scrutiny. Moreover the SOE Act quite properly prevents Ministers from getting directly involved themselves. The investment statement prepared by Treasury in '22 helps confirm this. The Government stake in listed companies significantly outperformed their cost of capital whereas Government stakes in unlisted companies underperformed. That's even with the then COVID-afflicted Air New Zealand being counted amongst the listed companies. That means the Government has lost taxpayers' money by leaving it in these unlisted companies relative to the equivalent risk investments elsewhere.A more closely monitored KiwiRail may well have made fewer disastrous investments and maintenance choices. In addition to better accountability partially private ownership would have given KiwiRail more flexibility to make decisions based on economics rather than politics. When the mixed-ownership or private companies need more capital like KiwiRail has asked for with the ferry programme they prove the case not to the Cabinet but to private investors. That means that access to capital is determined by the rates of return on offer rather than the Government's political or fiscal position. That makes it easier for good projects to go forward and bad projects to be stopped. Private investors have no incentive to throw good money after bad simply to avoid embarrassment. Private investors can move quickly when needed rather than forestalling a decision for political convenience as the previous finance Minister seems to have done. The involvement of private investors would have allowed for alternative financing of the ferry programme to be considered.Private and partially private transport companies are not immune from accidents but they do tend to make fewer white elephant investments like iReX that delay and distract from the real solutions to ageing machinery. A 49 percent privatised KiwiRail would be more accountable more flexible and possibly better capitalised. That would make it less likely for a comedy of errors like this ferry debacle has been to occur. Thank you Mr Speaker.