22 November 2007

N E W S R E L E A S E

Council delighted as AAA credit rating is confirmed

New Plymouth District Council is delighted to receive today’s re-confirmation of its AAA credit rating from international rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S+P).

Mayor Peter Tennent says: “Triple-A is as good as it gets and for S+P to rate us so highly for the fourth successive year is simply fantastic news.

“It represents continuing vindication of our non-political and business-focused approach to finance and investments.”

NPDC is the only council in New Zealand to be rated AAA – the highest rating possible for any organisation.

“A triple-A rating is harder for a council to get in New Zealand in comparison to councils in some other countries,” says Chief Executive Rodger Kerr-Newell.

“Overseas governments can act as a financial back-stop for any of their councils that get in trouble, but that isn’t the case in New Zealand where councils have to stand on their own two feet.

“So S+P’s rating indicates just how robust NPDC’s approach is to finance and investment.”

A copy of S+P’s news release, in which it notes the council’s ‘strong balance sheet and high liquidity’, as well as its research update follow below.

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Gordon Campbell: On The New Government’s Policies Of Yesteryear

Winston Peters is routinely described as the kingmaker who decides whether the centre right or the centre-left has a turn at running this country. He also plays a less heralded, but equally important role as the scapegoat who can be blamed for killing taxes that his senior partners never much wanted in the first place. Neither Ardern nor Robertson for example, really wanted a capital gains tax, for fear of Labour copping the “tax and spend“ label they ended up being saddled with anyway. Usefully though, they could tell the party faithful it was wicked old Winston who killed the CGT. More