Hollow Men confirm hidden agendas – asset sales

State Owned Enterprises Minister Trevor Mallard called on National to reveal its real agenda on asset sales after the party's leader repeatedly contradicted his own finance spokesman today.

"National leader John Key said today that New Zealand doesn't need to "rush in and sell its assets" – in stark contrast to the recent utterances of Bill English who confirmed the party would sell New Zealanders' assets down the road – as per the revelations in The Hollow Men.

"Who is telling the truth? Or why are there two versions of the truth depending on whether you are Mr Key or Mr English. Why can't anyone get a straight answer?" Trevor Mallard asked.

"Bill English has also said that the assets sales policy is a "policy we've had for some time now" yet Mr Key denied this under questioning on the Breakfast programme today and even refused to say what the policy is.

"Confusion reigns. This party is in complete disarray to the extent that its leaders are contradicting each other all over the place and proving slippery with the truth. National has a duty to clear up this mess so the public know once and for all what is going on in their minds and what their actual agenda is.

"Has Mr Key ordered Mr English to back off and stay quiet on asset sales?

"Or is Mr Key about to flip and flop like he has done previously when the going gets tough and he finds out his "let the market rule" policy ideas are total turn off for most New Zealanders?"

Compare these two transcripts. Who is right?

Transcript: John Key on the Breakfast show 3 October 2007.

PRESENTER: Alright, very quickly, there was a lot of talk over the previous week about SOEs...

KEY: Yeah and I think look, that was portrayed the wrong way and taken completely out of proportion. When I was the, the [sic] Finance spokesman, and I hold the same view now, New Zealand does not need to rush in and sell assets. We... firstly, ah we don't have a debt crisis as we had in the 80s and 90s, and in fact net debt's positive in New Zealand, ah those things make a lot of money now. They didn't make money in the old days, SOEs lost money.

PRESENTER: So, so [sic] what is your policy. KEY: Well our point is simply this ah, last time we had a very, very timid policy of saying we might sell a quarter of ah, Solid Energy and some farms on Landcorp. Now, we're listening to the public, we're happy to have that debate, we know they don't want to ah sell assets and we understand that, in fact...

PRESENTER: So what is your policy.

KEY: Well we'll declare that in 2008, going into the election.

PRESENTER: So you don't have a policy. KEY: No, we, we [sic] are in the process of putting together policy.

Transcript: Bill English on assets sales policy on 95bfm 24 September 2007

PRESENTER: How far along is this policy because it seems like it is very much in its initial stages?

ENGLISH: Oh, well it’s essentially a restatement of, um, policy we’ve had for some time, so there’s nothing new.

ends

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