Amy Adams - Finance

22 August 2018

An independent report released today by TDB Advisory shows that the Mixed Ownership Model introduced under the previous National Government has been an overwhelming success, National’s Finance spokesperson Amy Adams says.

“The Mixed Ownership process successfully generated $4.7 billion for public infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and broadband and TDB’s findings highlight the wider issue with the Government’s ideological opposition to private sector involvement in funding new assets.

“The partial sell-down of Genesis, Meridian and Mercury began in 2013 and had three simple objectives: to lower Government debt; to increase investment opportunities for ‘mum and dad’ investors; and to improve the financial performance of each company.

“TDB’s study shows all of these objectives have been achieved.

“The most striking finding is that despite electricity prices being flat-to-falling over the period of the Mixed Ownership Model, shareholder returns have increased by 69 percent and the Government has received higher dividends despite owning a lower share of each company.

“The report also shows that opposition to the Mixed Ownership Model was misplaced. It didn’t lead to higher electricity prices. And it didn’t result in a drop-off in renewable energy generation, which has increased over the period.

“The current Government has an irrational opposition to the private sector. Labour’s ideological resistance to Private-Public Partnerships to build public assets means a number of important projects are failing to get off the ground.

“The Government shouldn’t shut itself off from ideas such as Private-Public Partnerships or Mixed Ownership purely on ideological grounds. Evidence, not ideology, should drive good policy.

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