Palmerston North Voted To Keep Assets

Before the election last year many commentators and politicians, myself included, painted the vote as a referendum on asset sales. In a bid to get people looking at the policies rather than just the personalities, we implored the voting public to vote for parties whose policies reflected their own views on state asset sales.

Given that, it could be read that New Zealand voted for asset sales when it elected a National-led government. Certainly the word ‘mandate’ has been thrown around quite a lot since election day. National gained 48% of the vote, it has formed a government and has the confidence of Parliament. Surely that constitutes a ‘mandate’ to sell off our assets?

Not exactly. The referendum on asset sales threw up an interesting result: 60 MPs clearly in favour of selling assets, 60 MPs clearly opposed to selling them and 1 MP, Peter Dunne, whose position on asset sales seems to depend on the direction of the prevailing wind at the time he is asked where he stands.

For now, Peter Dunne says he will support the Government’s programme to sell off the Government’s top performing assets. Those that produce the greatest rate of return for taxpayers are the first on the block.

So just how enthusiastic are New Zealanders about asset sales? Unsurprisingly, not very. Polls regularly show around 75% of us are in favour of holding on to our power companies and majority share of Air New Zealand. Here in Palmerston North, we overwhelmingly displayed our desire to keep our assets at the ballot box. 53.5% of us voted for parties that favour retention and just 45.2% of us voted for parties that favour selling them off.

So should we resign ourselves to the National-led Government inevitably acting against our wishes? Not on your life! Democracy doesn’t just happen once every three years. Expressing our views and being listened to by our government is more than just a right. It is a privilege that we must make the most of at every opportunity.

Opposition politicians, and those who supported us, must accept election results and allow the government to govern while stating our opposition where we disagree and building the case for our alternative view.

However, where it is obvious that the government is not only working against the best interests of the nation but also the will of the people, we all must fight with every resource and every ounce of energy we can muster.

Printed in The Tribune on Wednesday, January 18.