If National wins ...

[elZorro]

Thanks for picking up on that Belgarion. I don't think the referendum on such an important matter was expensive at $9mill. It's like asking if it's a good idea to sell off part of your house in a bad year, when you've just spent the last 30-40 years paying it off, and when it was saving you a lot of rent outgoings. NZ is still the old-school NZ, we do prefer to pay things off and to keep them while they are useful.

After all of the sell-off of strategic assets, the govt will obtain say $4bill, this is a one-off that we start paying for immediately in terms of reduced dividends. Meanwhile govt income each year is more like $60bill (well it was when Labour were in office, working in a surplus and paying off govt debt). The National govt has been distracted with these asset sales, we needed them to look after (promote, encourage, sustain) manufacturing industry and jobs. They have done the opposite.

[iceman]

There was nothing important about this ridiculous referendum. It was a waste of time and taxpayers dollars. The referendums are meant to be a way for individuals to gather enough valid signatures to bring issues to Parliaments attention. It is not meant for political parties that already have taxpayer funded voices inside Parliament.
Of course Key will and should ignore this farce.

The same can not be said about previous referendums that were NOT initiated by political parties with MPs, such as the smacking referendum, which outrageously was completely ignored by all the major political parties !

[777]

Where National's mandate now ???

Even the most loyal Nat supporters must see Key as a liability now!

But there is no viable alternative to vote for.

[elZorro]

But there is no viable alternative to vote for.

Do you mean that you'd never vote Labour, on principle? That I can understand as an excuse. Labour was in for nine years last time, and were excellent stewards of the country, by almost all benchmarks. The results have been left as statistics, easily obtained over the web.

[iceman]

Talking about good stewardship EZ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=11172242

[777]

Do you mean that you'd never vote Labour, on principle? That I can understand as an excuse. Labour was in for nine years last time, and were excellent stewards of the country, by almost all benchmarks. The results have been left as statistics, easily obtained over the web.

In your humble opinion of course. I thought the nine years were a disaster. Clark's and Cullen's condescending attitude to the population was nothing less than disgusting. Now with needing the Greens to get them past the post it could only be worse, especially with Cunliffe as leader and Norman standing beside him.

[elZorro]

Talking about good stewardship EZ http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=11172242

Iceman, Brian talks a lot of sense, but he has still neglected to mention some facts, like the NZ economy still failing to reach the level of performance Labour left it in pre-GFC fallout. That's why the recent surges look so good, as we climb out of the hole. Brian mentions the investment interest from the farming sector, based mostly on the higher dairy payout. This can have a big effect. I expect it will result in a lot of new cars and quad bikes being sold, we already saw that here at Fieldays in 2013. I'll wait to see if farmers substantially change their practice of going for easy assets like tractors, instead of longer term structural assets and equipment that could be a lot more profitable longer term.

One of the local accountants sent out a newsletter saying to beware of the hype. Across all the businesses they were handling, profits were obviously constrained. They suggested being careful with available capital.

[elZorro]

In your humble opinion of course. I thought the nine years were a disaster. Clark's and Cullen's condescending attitude to the population was nothing less than disgusting. Now with needing the Greens to get them past the post it could only be worse, especially with Cunliffe as leader and Norman standing beside him.

777, that's exactly what I mean. The economic data from Labour's nine years was good, in fact very good. In the same way that you disagree with a more hands-on approach from government, I dislike the cronyism, the stand-back and let-the-market-do-it approach of National, especially if the average person in NZ gets to be worse off because of it. This is what has happened, it is also in the stats.

[blackcap]

Pleased you recognise what a referendum is for.

In this case 44% percent of the population, made up of individuals voting on one very specific issue, exercised their rights to tell this govt that they DIDN'T have a mandate to sell off national assets. And National voters contributed to the 2/3 of Kiwis who said NO.

Even National voters will be wondering exactly who Key is representing.

Perhaps they too will be wondering if the rumours were right and Key's there windfall profits made by his mates who have made $60 MILLION out out of the floats thus far?

Hmm .... 60 MILLION for Key's mates and only 9 million to tell him he was wrong to do so? So whose really wasting money?

Who are these mates that have made $60m thus far? To my knowledge investors in the floats have lost till now? (The NZ govt being the winner, and by proxy the NZ public)

[winner69]

I think belg is referring to the costs of the float .....like the fees paid to the various finance houses and investment banks etc in particular.