19 August 2003

Hon Jim Anderton MP, Progressive Leader

National, ACT Admit Selling NZ Banks Was Wrong

Progressive leader Jim Anderton says he is very encouraged by comments to the media from National and ACT Party spokespeople bemoaning the imminent sale of National Bank to an Australian bank.

"Ideologically-driven governments in the 1980s and 1990s sold, with gay abandon, New Zealand-owned banks to Australia. They decided on principle that it was wrong for the people of New Zealand to own Post Bank or the Bank of New Zealand and now we have a retail banking system which is totally dominated by four Australian banks," Jim Anderton said.

"You don't know whether to laugh or cry when you hear the ACT and National party spokespeople now come out and say they think it would be financially and economically disadvantageous for New Zealand if the National Bank is sold to one of those four Australian banks," he added.

"The important thing that can give comfort to New Zealanders is that a new New Zealand-owned retail bank – called Kiwibank – is offering very competitive services and fees so that we retain some protection from the downside effects of the policies of the 1980s and 1990s which ACT and National have strongly supported," Jim Anderton said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media