29 August 2002

Peters Urges Government To Stop Air New Zealand Sale To Qantas

The New Zealand First Leader, Winston Peters, has called on the Labour minority government to stop any sale of any part of Air New Zealand to Qantas.

“When Air New Zealand was hocked-off by Labour in 1989 – along with the rest of the country’s assets – taxpayers received $660 million.

“Last year the Prime Minister, through her ill considered comments, drove up the price of the Government’s buy-back of our airline.

“This week, as Air New Zealand celebrates its return to profitability, we are again faced with the prospect of a sale to Qantas,” Mr Peters said.

“When will the message get through that New Zealanders do not want foreigners to own our airline, nor do we want overseas interests to have control over our tourism industry, or to be in the position of cutting vital domestic services. And we certainly don’t want to give any our return on our very considerable investment to Australians. Qantas should be told to ‘fly’ off!”.

ENDS

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