Debate on Crown Entities, Public Organisations,and State Enterprises

As I finished my speech last night, I was talking about the fantastic performance of an entity called Landcorp. It is an illustration of what a State-owned enterprise can do if it is given a consistent direction and has certainty about the longevity of its operations. This Government is committed to a State-owned enterprise model as a long-term shareholder, and opposed to the sort of hold-for-sale stance of its predecessor Government, the National Party.

Landcorp made a profit of $38 million, and when we came into Government, the Primary Production Committee was advised by board members that under us—a Labour-led Government—they could at last put in place long-term business strategies and grow the business. The problem they had under the previous National administration was that Landcorp was always classed as an asset that was to be put on the block for sale. If one is running a business—as I have and other members have—one knows that without certainty, one cannot put in place decent long-term business strategies and plans from which to grow that business and its profits. So what Landcorp—one of our leading agricultural entities, and an asset of which the Crown is the custodian—has been able to do is provide the taxpayer with a $38 million profit. That is the difference, I suppose, between members opposite and us. As I said last night, we are doers and builders; we are not wreckers and vandals. We do not sell off the family silver, as they do.

An illustration of that, as I pointed out last night, is the National Party’s position on State-owned enterprises in respect of Tranz Rail. As members know, this Government is in the process of purchasing back the track, and when Mr Sowry, the Opposition spokesperson, was asked by a Minister of Transport what he would he would do if he inherited that track as purchased by us, he said: “We will wait and see.” That tells the people of New Zealand that the National Party has, for the first time, announced a policy. That policy is a recycling of a State-owned enterprise policy that was rejected in not one, but two elections. The New Zealand people now know that if National got back—heaven forbid, and it will not happen for a very long time—it would again embark on an asset sales programme that would involve the sale of the Accident Compensation Corporation, which we took back into ownership to fulfil a promise. It would involve the sale of the Tranz Rail track; the sale—even though it is not classed as an State-owned enterprise—of the existing shares in Air New Zealand; the sale of hospitals, schools, and the like.

I am glad that policy is out in the open. I know that Simon Power, an up and coming leader of the National Party, is not glad it is out in the open. We can now go to the stump at the next election and tell the New Zealand people what we truly know, and it is that the National Party is a sell, sell, sell party.

Debate interrupted.