National's asset sales policy under fire

The National Party was facing criticism from the Government, ACT and the Greens today after announcing a cautious policy on asset sales and saying it would keep Kiwibank during a first term in power.

National's finance spokesman, John Key, told a meeting in Auckland this morning that selling Kiwibank would cause "unnecessary disruption" to its hundreds of thousands of customers.

He said National would not sell it during a first term, and "final decisions" would be made when "full and complete information" was available.

National strongly opposed the establishment of Kiwibank, and has suggested in the past that it should be sold.

Mr Key said National's aim was to increase the performance of public sector assets, but that should not imply that none would be sold.

State-owned Enterprises Minister Paul Swain accused Mr Key of trying to hide National's plans with weasel words.

"John Key is trying to be sneaky by talking about National's first term plans, but if they were serious about no asset sales they would rule them out completely," he said.

"They are trying to double-cross the public."

Green Party co-leader Rod Donald said Mr Key had signalled National would sell Landcorp farms and partially privatise Solid Energy.

"Voters should be under no illusion that National still plans to sell what is left of our family silver," he said.

"Privatisation won't happen by lunchtime, but it will happen."

ACT leader Rodney Hide said there was now little difference between Labour and National.

"National hasn't signed up to Kiwibank because it thinks it's a good idea - it has done so solely for political expedience," he said.

"National wants to cuddle up to the Labour Party and old Alliance policies."

- NZPA