gers a “bulls**t” response whenever I hear a politician use the word “Kiwi”), who of course have bucketloads of spare cash sitting around waiting for something to spend it on, will have first rights to buy shares in companies which, as taxpayers, they already own. Am I missing something here, or are we about to be ripped off yet again? We are told that we have to sell what remains of the family silver because we are drowning in a sea of debt and there is no other way to pay it off. This is an outright lie. Our public debt sits at less than 30% of GDP, 97 th on the list of national indebtedness, less than half that of the United States, a third of that of the UK, a quarter of the French and Canadian Governmental liabilities, and barely an eighth of the degree to which Japan is in hock to the global banks. Our total external debt, which includes private borrowings, is half the world average, and only half that of the US and Australia. British debt is nine times greater than ours and Switzerland’s more than five times. Selling 49% of our State Assets will have no effect at all on private debt, but will halve the amount of income we currently receive from them. The entire idea of privatisation, partial or not, is absolute rubbish which cannot possibly work, and which, as history and bitter experience has very clearly shown us, does not work. But John Key, money dealer and master gambler, wants us to do it again; and furthermore, he believes that enough people will vote for the idea that he will be returned to office come November. That’s a big ask, because it relies heavily on more people than voted for National last time voting for them this time. With ACT in freefall and the Maori Party imploding, the Nats are running out of allies, and Key’s blunt refusal to work with Winston Peters may turn out to have a sad outcome for one person only, that being John Key himself. The reason I say that is this; the New Zealand public didn’t vote John Key in, they voted Helen Clark out. If Key believes otherwise then it is possible he has fallen victim to the cult of ego, which may be clouding his judgement. Now don’t get me wrong, I wanted Helengrad gone as much as anyone, and John Key came across as a nice enough guy. But this supposedly conservative National administration supported the antismacking Bill and still does, hasn’t given me back my Air Force, won’t scrap the ETS, and now it tells me it’s going to sell off my electricity supplier to the highest bidder – again. And apart from that, in the past two-and-a-bit years, this Government has done…um…well, nothing, really.
So why should I vote for it again? Truth is, I won’t be. This coming election will be about one issue and one issue only, and that will be asset sales. It won’t be about global warming, or who wins the rugby world cup, or whether or not Phil Goff dyes his hair. I don’t want Rogernomics again at any price, and poorly-spun garbage about partial privatisation won’t cut it for this writer. National isn’t National anymore, it’s morphed itself into ACT, and if I wanted ACT I’d vote for it. So I am faced with a singular alternative, that being a Labourled administration, and if a right-winger like me can openly countenance that as being the lesser of two evils, then John Key and the Nats are in serious trouble, because I most certainly won’t be alone in my thinking. And if enough conservatives don’t want asset sales, but they also don’t want a Labour Government which is beholden to the Greens, they will most likely vote for Winston instead, which means that Key will have painted himself into a corner. If Key is prepared to polarize himself into political oblivion that is one thing, but whether the rest of the National Party wishes to follow him is quite another. Paradoxically, time may prove that National’s best hope of retaining power might involve dumping their most popular Leader and Prime Minister ever, and replacing him with someone more driven by political pragmatism than by failed ideology. If I was a betting man, which I’m not, my pick would be that Key’s gamble will fail, and there will be no fire sale of our assets this century.
n Will Peters get the last laugh? NZPA/Marty Melville
If enough conservatives don’t want asset sales, but they also don’t want a Labour Government which is beholden to the Greens, they will most likely vote for Winston instead, which means that Key will have painted himself into a corner HISMAGAZINE.TV Mar 2011 11