ACT Finance spokesman Rodney Hide said today that it was great news that The Warehouse is forming a joint financial services venture with WestpacTrust Bank to provide retail financial services through The Warehouse’s 74 stores nation-wide.

“They believe they have identified a gap in the market and are working to close it. Good on them. I wish them every success. That’s the sort of entrepreneurial spirit we must encourage to keep our country great.

“I am appalled that Deputy Prime Minister Jim Anderton used his position and Parliament yesterday to attack The Warehouse. He’s clearly worried that this private sector initiative poses a commercial threat to what he himself has dubbed ‘Jim’s Bank’. But it’s wrong for the Deputy Prime Minister to attack The Warehouse from within Parliament just because they look like offering a better service, quicker and cheaper than New Zealand Post.

“That’s what happens when politicians try and run a business. First, he’s poured in $80 million of taxpayers’ money into his bank. Now he’s using his position to attack private businesses investing their own money to serve better the people of New Zealand.

“It’s this sort of tin-pot dictator behaviour that is giving New Zealand such a bad name. Jim Anderton would do better to abandon his state-sponsored bank and rather salute the Warehouse and Westpac for their entrepreneurial spirit and commitment to New Zealand,” said Rodney Hide.

ENDS

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