The Government had an agenda of reprivatising Air New Zealand all along, and deserves a roasting over its handling of the issue, says the chairman of the Shareholders' Association, Bruce Sheppard.
The association, which had suggested to Air NZ a rights issue underwritten by the Government, yesterday withdrew thatproposal as events had overtaken it.
"We had moulded our [proposal] a couple of times to fit the changes in circumstances, but the Government basically said ' ... we want to make this a state-owned enterprise and there's nothing you can do about it'." Mr Sheppard said the Government had effectively taken away shareholders' opportunity to fund their own company.
