Hard News: Opening a canned worm factory
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To everyone who has been advancing "phone services were crap in NZ pre-privatisation, now they're much better so that shows that privatisation was good" argument. Might I suggest that you look over the Tasman. There the telecommunications monopoly was, until recently, corporatised (not privatised) and guess what, they got a much better phone system than us.
Change was necessary in the 1980s, just not the change we got.
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Coupla points:
Firslty, most of the privatisations mentioned - all of them, in fact - were done in a crisis. And yeah, most of them were botched.
Telecom - the process was completed from go to woah in about six months. That's from policy formation through to sale. Incredibly rushed for a sale of that nature. I've seen the paper trail on this and its just scary how fast the Palmer govt shoved that one through. [remember that next time you hear Sir Geoff droning on about due process and all that]
Railways - shit, even some Labour MPs privately said they would have had to sell it if they'd still been in power. And I don't mean hardcore Rogernomes either.
Then when you compare it to say, Government Property Services, which took place over about two years. Contact Energy, which used to be part of what was then ECNZ, something similar.
What I'm getting to is any future sell offs are probably going to be done more in the manner of Govt Property Services and Contact than Telecom, Railways, Air NZ etc. And English was only talking about partial sell offs.
There are sound wider reasons for having at least some private shareholding in such companies. Parltly expertise. Partly it does provide more investment opportunities for NZers - we have a shallow capital market [shit, Labour minsiters themselves are always saying this] and its gotten even more so over recent years with the takeover boom.
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Lordy, the 2008 general election can't come soon enough.
You can't really tell me you're going to vote for Key, Craig. Please. I don't know if you are going to or not, that's a purely personal matter of course, and no-one else's business. Having said all that though, I would just say this. Sometimes, women look at gay men (in a purely shallow way) and say "what a waste". I'd say that about your politics. You are so witty, so intelligent, so interesting, and I respect your opinions on so many things. Why can't you be a lefty? I'd vote for you if you were standing in local elections..........
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and of course it goes without saying that politics are not all about left and right, and sticking to only one or t'other - to show that I understand the principles of this I'll tell you a secret, but you aren't to tell anyone else. I used to vote for Christine Fletcher when she was MP for Mt Eden. I know, I can't believe it either.
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Jackie,
I voted for Helen Clark in Mt Albert in 1987....mostly because she was the only candidate on the ballot who wasn't a dimwit or a loonie. Oh, and I admired what Labour had done in their first term, but that was kind of secondary. I had this idea, back when we had first past the post, that the best thing you could do was vote for the best candidate on your ballot paper.
It was hard, that time, though. Felt as though legions of Tory voting ancesters were doing a slow roll in their coffins.
This is probably the main reason that, unlike a lot of others on the conservative side of politics, I like MMP, for all its faults.
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You are so witty, so intelligent, so interesting, and I respect your opinions on so many things. Why can't you be a lefty?
If there is one thing I have learned from being blood-related to diehard Republicans and National/New Zealand First voters, it is that no good can come from this question, Jackie. :)
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I would definitely vote for Craig.
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Railways - shit, even some Labour MPs privately said they would have had to sell it if they'd still been in power
NZ is a country better suited to a comprehensive rail network than road. Switzerland, Austria anyone..
The rail network had been neglected for years and had a weird gauge width. So such decisions tend to have a cumulative effect. Coupled with govt debt from Piggy. OH Whats the point. When the fuck is this country going to let some intelligent people in govt. Its been 70 yrs surely its due, OH sorry wrong again.
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