19 August 2015

National’s backdoor attempt to keep asset sales alive

The Government is actively looking to sell off $2 billion worth of assets to bolster and extend the life of the short-term fund it created for asset sales, new Treasury documents show, says Labour’s Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson.

“The Future Investment Fund was created to hold the money the Government got from asset sales last term. It was supposed to be a short-term fund and, as Treasury documents show, it has run out of money.

“National promised before the election not to sell more assets. This paper indicates there is an extensive list of assets held by SOEs that are now on the chopping block

“Today in Parliament Bill English refused to say what SOEs those assets came from.

“The entire asset sales programme last term raised under $5 billion. Raising almost $2 billion in more sales in this new round is extremely significant. This isn’t just selling some bits of unused land. It’s a big deal.

“The Minister has refused to disclose details of the SOEs and departments affected and has gone ahead with this without even consulting all of the boards. This shows how secretive this plan has been,” Grant Robertson said.

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