PM proud of sales plan

John Key. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Prime Minister John Key isn't buckling in the face of opposition to partial state-asset sales, telling delegates to a National Party conference yesterday that they had to win the debate and be proud of the policy heading into the November election.

He also said giving state-owned enterprises such as Mighty River Power an injection of private capital would allow them to expand their business without having to go cap in hand to the Government.

"But if they are constantly going to be looking to a cash-strapped Government for further investment, that investment won't take place," he told the northern regional conference in Mt Wellington.

Partial state-asset sales are one of the clearest policy differences between Labour and National. Labour promises to sell none - and 62.4 per cent of voters in last week's Herald-DigiPoll survey opposed the policy.

National has identified Mighty River and four other state-owned assets - Air New Zealand, Meridian, Genesis and Solid Energy - that it would partially sell if re-elected.

The Government would keep a shareholding of at least 51 per cent.

National avoids the term asset sales and instead uses the term "mixed-ownership model".

Mr Key said that whenever he spoke at Grey Power meetings, someone raised concerns about selling shares in state companies, and generally that concern was shared by the audience. But usually, most of the audience, when asked, had invested in a failed finance company, and when that issue was raised, they saw it from a different perspective, he said.

It made no sense for New Zealanders to be able to invest in a KiwiSaver account but not be able to invest in a good New Zealand asset. Audrey Young