Remember when - Part Two

Tony Ryall has put out a follow-up to yesterday's media release. Once again via Scoop, here 'tis:

Remember When – Part Two
Remember when Labour sold off Air New Zealand under urgency for $660 million to Brierley’s (65 per cent), and overseas airline companies Qantas (19.9 per cent), American Airlines (7.5 per cent) and Japan Airlines (7.5 per cent)?
Remember when – also in 1989 – Labour sold off Shipping Corp to ACT (NZ) Ltd? This $33.5 million sale was again pushed through under urgency – with no select committee process.
And remember – again in1989 – Labour sold Rural Banking Finance to Magneton Holdings for over half a billion dollars?
In just three years, Labour sold over 15 state assets for almost $10 billion to the highest bidders.
Who voted for these asset sales without telling the public about their plans at the previous election?
Phil Goff. Annette King. Trevor Mallard. And the rest of the Labour Party.
The same people who are now criticising the National Government’s mandated, long signalled, partial share offer to New Zealanders.
ENDS

Tony Ryall will again have given rise to blushes on the Opposition benches. Labour would love to be able to forget that it sold more assets than any other government (by dollar value) in the years 1984 to 1990. And once again, he has pointed out the shabby process that the Lange/Palmer/Moore government followed; no electoral mandate, the use of urgency and in some instances the complete absence of a select committee process.

It's little wonder that Labour is so keen to demonise John Key. He said that there would be no asset sales in the first term of his government, and there were no asset sales. National took its Mixed Ownership Model to the electorate in November last year, and received the highest share of the vote that any party has received in six MMP elections. And National is not trying to rush its legislation through under urgency.

There's another significant difference. National's plan will give individuals the opportunity to invest in our key assets. As we have previously noted, we will most certainly be looking to acquire a shareholding in Mighty River Power, which we will retain as a long-term investment, and hopefully pass dowen to our children as part of our estate. We hope that our Kiwisaver provider will invest on our behalf. And we know that a number of Iwi groups will look to make enduring, strategic investments that will provide an ongoing return for their whanau.

There is a world of difference between National's Mixed Ownership Model proposal and Labour's flawed fire-sales of entire assets in the 1980's. But Labour and the Greens want to muddy the waters, and paint the two approaches as identical. Tony Ryall as Minister of State Services has provided a significant public service by pointing out those differences, and the ongoing hypocrisy by senior, long-serving Labour Party MP's.