KEY POINTS:
As New Zealand prepares to buckle down for another year, it's a good time to imagine what some movers and shakers might be thinking about the year ahead - and the one that's just gone...
TONY GIBBS
GPG executive director
It's flattering to be called a "hard man" by the Herald - but I'm really a softie at heart. We (Tina Symmans and I) "got commonsense to prevail" when Michael Cullen wanted to tax unrealised gains on overseas investments. Our 30,000 New Zealand investors turned out to be an amazingly effective fighting force - as even Michael acknowledged when he backed down on that daft proposal to penalise them with capital gains taxes on 85 per cent of their unrealised gains. He even gave our shareholders a five-year exemption from the replacement tax.
The Government didn't really cut our shareholders a special deal for electoral reasons did they? Whatever, we'll have another go this year and see if we can get another GPG exemption - what about ensuring our dividends stay tax free even when they reach our shareholders' pockets!
I didn't go into the capital gains tax battle thinking I was going to lose - and I won't in this one either.
TREVOR MALLARD
SOEs Minister
I love foreign companies.
I just love foreign investors.
I love Americans. I love Aussies - Oh all right Stef, I'll cut the mantra out now.
What I will do is promise to love and hug all those "international" companies that have bought us lock stock and barrel and persuade them to get behind the Government's 2007 export drive by ordering their New Zealand subsidiaries become "engines of economic transformation".
Wearing my Economic Development hat, I'll persuade them to pay their workers Aussie style rates, keep more profits here to reinvest in their local companies and list operations on the NZX.
If they don't get the message, I'll wield my SOEs into a fighting force, list them on the NZX, get Lianne [Dalziel Commerce Minister] to rort the competition rules in their favour and ... Sorry Helen, yes I will try persuasion first.
JOHN PALMER
Air NZ chairman
Thank goodness the Aussies have called quits to our pantomime over forming an Australasian airline cartel with Qantas.
Now that Qantas looks like being swallowed by the private equity boys, Geoff Dixon [Qantas CEO] has a lot more to worry about than our carve-up on transtasman routes.
I know it's not a done deal yet, but if Michael [Cullen] wants to swell the Government's coffers (even more) he might not be averse to us having a chat with some PE players ourselves.
Irrespective, it will be downright hilarious if Geoff's new owners find themselves lumbered by having to buy the Aussie airlines' unions off and preserve jobs so that the takeover can proceed. Remember Ansett!
Could be the right time for us to get more competitive in Australia - thanks, Geoff.
BILL ENGLISH
National finance spokesman
Well, I'm back where I belong. Almost.
I'm not Labour-Lite - unlike ...
In 2007 I will define National's economic policy and if the rug slips so be it. I won't be the one found placing the banana peel.
I'm made of tougher stuff now.
Trevor and Michael have tried to deal to this question of the foreign takeover of NZ companies. Michael even wants to hold off on dropping company taxes so that there's no extra incentives for Aussie companies to get further into the transfer pricing game.
But they haven't thought it through.
I haven't either. Michael might be doing a better job on that front than I previously thought - but I'm going to hack into that reputation fast.
CRAIG NORGATE
Rural Portfolio Investments
I'm on the comeback trail - just in case you haven't noticed I'm now deputy chairman of PGG Wrightson.
I know the results weren't as good as I promised when I put the boot into Wrightson when you were running it, John [Palmer]. But that's farmer politics. As brutal as anything you will find at national level.
I won't be resting on this laurel.
Watch out for me when Fonterra finally gets round to listing some sort of shares on the NZX. They'd be just the ticket to tuck into our rural portfolio.
I told Henry van der Heyden I'd stay on gardening leave for a while when he tipped me out as Fonterra CEO. But leave's over. How about that chairman's hat sometime, Henry?
LLOYD MORRISON
Infratil managing director
Well, I put paid to John Palmer's attempt to get the Aussie airline cartel up and running. But did I get it right?
Qantas is already ditching its Wellington-Christchurch flights. Unless Air NZ picks up the slack, Wellington Airport - of which we own 66 per cent - might lose some landing fees. Or so the critics say.
We'll be pushing hard to ensure Wellington remains the national's capital and a business travel hub. But we don't need you to get on your high horse, John. We're on the side that wants to keep competition moving in NZ. But if the Government sells down Air NZ - we'll be there somewhere.
How the 2006 crop rated
MICHAEL CULLEN
Finance Minister
7/10
I'm still Finance Minister. A sizeable achievement in itself after the press gallery wrote me off as "tired and grumpy" last year - a suitable candidate for early retirement. Don Brash walked the plank first. That's why I rate a 7/10, for being here in 2007. Not for tax cuts. They're top of my list for this year's resolutions. Promise.
ALAN BOLLARD
Reserve Bank Governor
5/10
I'm ruthless in my performance assessments - that's why I've given myself a 5/10 for my failure to persuade Kiwis to shift away from their debt-binges in 2006 and the over-investment in housing. But is it really all my fault? Michael's still spending lots himself, he's ruled out capital gains taxes to stop the property binge, the Aussie banks won't shut off the loans tap, Japanese investors are soaking up our bonds. Something will give this year - it won't be me.
GRAEME HART
Rank Group
2/10
Well, you didn't really expect me to keep that promise to allow New Zealander shareholders to come for the ride on my Carter Holt Harvey play? Of course I was always going to mop up all the Carter shares. I've sold the forests off, slashed head office costs and staff, pulled the Project Crimson sponsorship and all the other trappings which went with a respected New Zealand blue chip. Understand this: I'm an international private equity player. If New Zealanders want a slice of the big-time action, they better get the Government to privatise a few SOEs.
THERESA GATTUNG
Telecom CEO
9/10
David Cunliffe must have read my mind! Before I'd asked my government relations people to switch course and spell out to him why my company's broadband monopoly should be ditched in the interests of Kiwi businesses, scientists, film-makers and students - Cunliffe was on the case. Instead of paying us off with special compensation for sacrificing our dominant position - he just legislated our broadband monopoly away. Rotter.
MARK WELDON
NZX CEO
8/10
What a great year, even if I have to say it myself. The sharemarket benchmark index passed through the 4000 mark for the first time - up nearly 20 per cent in a year. Yes I know that if you strip out the dividend payments - as the NZSX-All Capital Index does - the rise is only about 10 per cent. But look, it's been a good year. Mallard and Cullen are going along with my suggestion to float parts of SOEs - even Fonterra looks hopeful.
JANE DIPLOCK
Securities Commission boss
6/10
Those Auckland QCs got one over me last year by persuading the Court of Appeal that I should be stopped from trying to hit up the remaining defendants in the Tranz Rail insider trading case for punitive damages. The maximum the commission could win now is $25 million compensation from David Richwhite and Midavia Rail Investments - not the mega millions written up by those breathless scribes when we launched our action over two years ago. Yes, it will still cost plenty to get the case to court - but the $7.35 million we extracted as settlement from the former US shareholders will help.
ANDREW FERRIER
Fonterra CEO
6/10
It would have been an 8/10 if we could have persuaded the Europeans to maintain our monopoly on importing NZ dairy quota to the EU. It's another reason why we've got to get with the pace and get outside (private) capital on board by listing Fonterra on the NZX. I failed to do it this year. But although it will take longer we can't live on monopoly rents for ever.
