Bruce Bisset: Key's smirk no longer his asset

Bruce Bisset. Photographer: Paul Taylor NEWS

It's always nice to know your government cares, and there's no clearer sign of how much this government cares than the big two-fingered salute they've waved at us ahead of today's opening of voting on the sale of assets referendum.

There's no other way to interpret the sudden sell-down of Air New Zealand.

It's an insult, and an outrageous one at that, aimed at every concerned New Zealander and delivered with that cutesy little smirk the PM is infamous for.

Well, John, you may think the deals are dusted, but you're about to get a big shock; this referendum may not be binding but if it mirrors the polls then around 80 per cent of us are set to remove that smile.

Key and his cronies are playing the "yesterday's news" card so beloved of politicians, believing that now that Mighty River Power and Meridian Energy and AirNZ are gone, we ordinary citizens will give up hope of changing anything, shrug, and not vote.

Given voter apathy, it's a fair bet. But in this case, I'm reckoning otherwise.

Because if nothing else the sheer gall of this last-minute fire-sale ahead of the vote should re-ignite the flames of opposition to the whole sell-off agenda and bring in a resounding "No Sales" result.

Regardless the government pig-headedly ignores the referendum (as they've said they will) and still sells more assets, there is no disputing the entire scheme has failed, dismally, on every level to live up to its over-hyped promise.

Even if you supported this neoliberal farce in the first place, you cannot deny that failure. For a start, the two power company sales have raised not much more than half of what was expected. Around $1.9 billion for Meridian and $1.7 billion for Mighty River, when together they were supposed to raise near $5 billion. Oh, less $200 million in fees.

Why? Because the economic masters sold these companies at the wrong time in the wrong environment.

Add-in the country will also miss out on dividend income of over $100 million per year and you might as well have simply given them away. In fact, I rather think that's what they did.

Which begs another question: where's the sale money? Remember, these sell-offs were to finance schools, and hospitals, and other essential infrastructure.

Do you see more money spent on schools and healthcare?

No. Just the opposite. Government is "selling down" its stake in these essential government services too by contracting them out. If the asset sale money goes anywhere, it'll go into the hands of private providers of supposedly public services, which we citizens will neither own nor control.

And has it reduced debt? No. The mathematics of the exercise was always going to increase, not decrease, overall debt-levels. Even the Nats admitted that, though not quite so plainly.

Moreover, who are the buyers? Not the intended "mum and dad" investors. The new AirNZ sale breached the "15 per cent overseas" limit on its first day.

And that's leaving aside how much power prices might go up now the assets are in demanding (overseas) shareholders' hands.

Bottom line: the sale of public assets hurts, not helps, our country.

Even if you believe Bill English saying only Genesis Energy remains for sale, Key's government deserves nothing less than a resounding defeat on this policy.

Bruce Bisset is a freelance writer and poet.