5/25/10

Free Market Fundamentalism in NZ



Gary Clail - Privatise The Air




Tapu Misa: When money and ethics collide

4:00 AM Monday Sep 22, 2008

But timing is everything and this is not a good time to preach the virtues of unfettered capitalism, to tell us regulation is bad but the free market is good, to insist business does it better, or wonder why many don't want to see public utilities in private hands.


If we've lost faith in the ability of the free market to deliver a decent society that puts the public good before private profit, it's because we've had good cause.

It's not just that private enterprise's claim to efficiency looks a little suspect against the taxpayer rescues of the BNZ and Air New Zealand and the buyback of TranzRail. We know when private profits collide with the public good we are the losers.

 

Posted by at
Labels:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

FOMA members keen on state assets

The chief executive of the Federation of Maori Authorities says FOMA members are keen to buy state assets if and when the government puts them up for sale.

Finance Minister Bill English has indicated that while the government intends to stick to its promise of no state asset sales this term, it's looking to privatise businesses like Kiwibank if it's reelected.

Ron Mark says FOMA members have come through the recession well, and see investment in state assets as a way to diversify from their agricultural base.

“There are many of our members who are sitting on cash reserves, who have very high levels of equity, very low levels of debt and they will be able to swiftly lever themselves into these opportunities of the due diligence stacks up,” he says.

Federation members would be particularly interested in water, utilities, transport, banking, construction and energy assets.

5/26/10, 9:54 AM
Anonymous said...

Anyone remember the June 1988 Budget, when Labour announced a comprehensive programme of privatisation. $20 billion would be raised by 1992.

State asset sales under Labour:
Telecom
State Insurance
BNZ
Post Bank
Air New Zealand
Tourist Hotel Corporation
New Zealand Steel
Petrocorp
Government Printing Office
Development Finance Coorporation
National Film Unit
Rural Banking and Finance Corporation
Shipping Corporation
New Zealand Liquid Fuel Investment
Maui Gas
SynFuels
Forest Corp + two generations of cutting rights
the unconditional sale of NZ Rail

5/26/10, 9:58 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)