ACT Finance Spokesman Rodney Hide today said the appointment of Jim Bolger as chair of the 'People's Bank' was the triumph of politics over business sense.

"The appointment does nothing to inspire New Zealanders with confidence that this bank is anything other than a dog.

"Jim Bolger knows nothing about banking. He is a politician. This is a political appointment, not a commercial one.

"With the greatest respect to Mr Bolger, no other bank would have him as Chair. It simply isn't his field of expertise or experience.

"The appointment is rich in irony. Jim Anderton has spent his political career bad-mouthing Jim Bolger. Now he's appointed him to chair his special project. Jim Bolger for his part has spent his career badmouthing socialism. Now he's in charge of setting up Mr Anderton's People's Bank.

"Jim Bolger's only banking experience is spending hundreds of millions of dollars to bail out the BNZ, and then selling it. The experience appears to have taught him nothing.

"He appears to have completed a full circle and returned to the days of Think Big," Rodney Hide said.

Ends

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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