Unethical Govt Leaves Workers Last In Line Over Terralink Sale

Former government employees will miss out on redundancy payments because the Government has engineered a prior call on the proceeds of the sale of Terralink, Opposition Finance spokesman Bill English said today.

The receiver has today indicated unsecured creditors will not get their full payment.

"Late last year the Government knew Terralink was in trouble and moved to secure its own interests with a high ranking debenture. The Government jumped the queue before other creditors could have known there was a problem.

"In effect they were using inside knowledge to ensure they would be first in line to be paid out when they put Terralink into receivership. That left employees well down the list, and now they look likely to get no, or severely reduced, redundancy payments as a result of the Government jumping the queue.

"This is unethical behaviour. The Government must now instruct the receiver to release the list of unsecured creditors so we can see who is missing out so the Government can get its money back.

"Last week the Government was lecturing Qantas New Zealand shareholders on their obligations to employees left high and dry. This week the Government is taking $1.5m of its own money out of its own business leaving redundant workers to fight over the crumbs with other unsecured creditors

"Selling Terralink is a sensible idea, but the Government is the only shareholder, and should explain to unsecured creditors why they are missing out. The Government protected its own interest at a time when everyone dealing with the company still assumed the Government would back the company rather than put it in receivership," Bill English said.

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