Govt knocks back taskforce advice to partially list SOEs

The Government has opted to ignore a strong recommendation from the Capital Markets Development Taskforce to consider partially listing state owned enterprises (SOEs).

The recommendation was one of the few knocked back in yesterday's response to the taskforce's 60 recommendations.

Taskforce chairman Rob Cameron said it had not come as a surprise given the Government's strong stance on no SOE privatisation in its first term.

But Cameron said it should not be ruled out in the future because of the huge potential benefits to mum-and-dad investors.

"The game has changed because we have looked at it from an investor point of view."

Cameron said the taskforce's research had shown New Zealand was one of the few OECD countries which did not partially list its SOEs - even developing country China did so.

"Not listing them hurts our investment choices for mums and dads and it affects the depth of the markets which is our engine for growth."

Those factors were not known before the report was released, he said.

Cameron said it would be brave for any Government to develop a manifesto that ruled out the partial listing of SOEs completely.

NZ Shareholders Association chairman Bruce Sheppard said the decision not to privatise SOEs was "predictable but unfortunate".

"I think they want to keep control of them and it is politically unacceptable."

But Sheppard warned that the "populist" move could end up backfiring on the party.

"If they continue to pander to what they think people want, enough of the thinking middle class who know what needs to be done are going to say 'what did we vote for?"'