For those who have not seen the Herald today, Emmerson’s take on asset sales.
For those who have not seen the Herald today, Emmerson’s take on asset sales.
This entry was posted on Thursday, January 27th, 2011 at 4:10 pm and is filed under asset sales, economy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Now now, they’re only selling half of the Donkey!
Half the donkey indeed. Guess who’ll get left with the arse end, as usual
Donkey Duncan Donuts. Anything, no matter how craven, biased, twisted, or untrue, to get his master re-elected, and the favours coming.
Donkey – John Key – sound familiar? THe donkeys the ‘lead’ – keys the leader – when I saw it first I thought it was funny to suggest we get rid of Johndonkey. (and if thats the case – Id prefer we got rid of all of the donkey)
“Don Key”…the latin american title used for the aristocracy.
I’m sure John won’t mind in the least.
@ Jennifer -
Such a true description of Duncan Donut – it applies perfectly to his alter ego too – Th eSPINer plus bro’when he gets going.
The future of transport is an electrically operated fleet. The grid neds vast expansion to generate this electricity, who should pay for that expansion, a borrowing government or a competitive market?
Time to stop sending billions of dollars to to the Middle East very year thru petrol costs and change the energy paradigm.
So, predictions of coming out of the recession ‘reasonable aggressively’ have turned into ‘we’re nearly broke and we have to sell what we can to make ends meet, or end up like Spain and Ireland’.
Oh, really?
In six months, johnny has bankrupted the country to the tune of a $15bn defecit and an extra $300m every week.
Donkey is a good nickname, though dog food is the next stop after the slaughterhouse.
Cartoon hyperbole in January. Established sensible logic in November
So the left is going to think that name calling could be the key to turning around your pathetic polling. You are seriously going to need a bit more than that to lift you off the 30% which has been the steady level of support since the election. When are Labour going to come up with something that captures the imagination and ambition of the people of NZ.
The cartoon is saying that the country has a massive debt problem and the cumulative effect of increased spending such as Labour propose will make the problem impossible to get on top of. Sell down the assets to minimise and control the debt. No point living in the million dollar house if you cannot afford the mortgage – best to sell down to get something affordable.
^
Here comes the chap with the bucket that walks behind the donkey, cherishing all he crap that falls his way.
That’s right, Moanty. And buy cheaper produce at the supermarket and drink your bosses coffee.
Bernard Hickey says that, in total, the four SOEs potentially up for sale generated total dividends last financial year of NZ$732.5 million and shareholder (government) equity stood at NZ$9.642 billion. This implies a combined (and very raw) dividend yield of 7.6% last year. As the government is currently paying around 5.5% for the new debt it is selling, mostly offshore. So on the face of it the government is a net loser by selling half of these state assets and avoiding having to raise new debt.
No name calling here, just fiscal logic!
Nice post Mark, so John Key can’t do the numbers!
I think Wonkey Donkey might have significatly improved his chances of retiring from NZ politics this year.
Really Monty – I didn’t see his cartoon like that. Emmerson used to be equally as hard on the last government [which I didn't appreciate] but which I’m sure you would have totally approved of. I still miss Malcolm Evans’ very perceptive cartoons. Though come to think of it Emmerson also contributed a cartoon last year which accurately depicted the middle eastern/Israeli situation at the time, but hey no sacking or non renewal of his contract as Malcolm Evans was subjected to when he did the same.
And another thing, how come we have not heard a peep from any other NACT politician since all this blew up?? Even JK’s Smiling Shadder Blinglish has been noticeably absent. Don’t want to get tarred with the same ‘Looney’ brush, Because even in the Herald ol’ Shonky Jonky’s sell the silver policy has been widely panned as old, tired. Llooks like the worm is turning.
Has anyone realised yet that apart from the top 5% of earners, everyone else in this country is really really poorly paid?
And here, Bill and John want to sell out from under us the things that we will need to live as a civil society in the coming and inevitable energy/fuel shocks.
A1lens – I really love the way – you hang on my every word. Maybe if the the last (for a long long time) Labour Government ran their budgets on the same foundations as I run my household then the country would be in a much better state of affairs. Those foundations are good work ethic (both my wife and myself), set goals and a plan to achieve those goals, look after savings and reinvest to grow the wealth, spend money carefully, minimise debt and ensure the only debt is good debt (ie affordable mortgages = good debt; Hire purchase / Credit Cards = bad debt)
I look after the small amounts of money (eg rarely buy coffee, take lunch to work, bike / walk to work, don’t smoke, rarely drink, go fishing/diving/ hunting for food , and use tax cuts to pay down debt or reinvest) and as a result I maintain a positive bank balance. I guess these are my life decisions, but these foundations do work. On a macro scale the same principles can be applied to Government spending. But Labour were much more interested in increasing (cumulatively) spending at $2.8b per annum. As a result the country lived way beyond its means and now there are massive debt problems.
You know all this to be true.
50% of NZ’ers earn less than $27500 p.a.
80% earn less than $60000 p.a.
We are a poorly paid country Monty. Well unless you stop comparing us to Australia (like Bill and John like to do), and compare us instead to say, Fiji.
LAB = 9 straight years of budget surpluses
NAT = incompetence, gifts to the rich = 3 straight years of budget deficits.
I was walking down the road and I saw a donkey hee haww
and he only had 3 legs
he was a , wonkey donkey, wonkey donkey, wonkey donkey yeah
Chorus;
and he only had 3 legs and 1 eye and he liked to listen to country music, yee ha
he was a honkey tonkey, winky, wonkey donkey,honkey tonkey, winky ,wonkey donkey,
Chorus;
and he only had 3 legs and 1 eye he liked to listen to country music and he was quite tall and slim
he was a lanky, honkey tonkey, winky, wonkey donkey,lanky,honkey tonkey, winky, wonkey donkey,
Chorus;
and he only had 3 legs and 1 eye, he liked to listen to country music, he was quite tall and slim and he smelt really, really bad.
he was a stinky dinky, lanky, honkey tonkey, winky, wonkey donkey,stinky dinky,lanky,honkey tonkey, winky, wonkey donkey,
Chorus;
and he only had 3 legs and 1 eye, he liked to listen to country music, he was quite tall and slim, he smelt really, bad and that morning he got up early and hadn’t had any coffee.
he was a cranky, stinky dinky, lanky, honkey tonkey, winky, wonkey donkey,cranky,stinky dinky,lanky,honkey tonkey, winky, wonkey donkey,
Chorus;
and he only had 3 legs and 1 eye, he liked to listen to country music, he was quite tall and slim, he smelt really bad, he got up early in the morning and hadn’t had any coffee but he was always getting up to micheif.
he was a hanky panky, cranky, stinky dinky, lanky, honkey tonkey, winky, wonkey donkey,hanky panky,cranky,stinky dinky,lanky,honkey tonkey, winky, wonkey donkey,
Chorus;
and he only had 3 legs and 1 eye, he liked to listen to country music, he was quite tall and slim, he smelt really bad, he got up early in the morning and hadn’t had any coffee, he was always getting up to micheif but he was quite good looking
he was a spunky, hanky panky, cranky, stinky dinky, lanky, honkey tonkey, winky, wonkey donkey,spunky,hanky panky,cranky,stinky dinky,lanky,honkey tonkey, winky wonkey donkey,
and he only had 3 legs and 1 eye, he liked to listen to country music, he was quite tall and slim, he smelt really bad, he got up early in the morning and hadn’t had any coffee, he was always getting up to micheif but he was quite good looking, and was the Prime Minister who mismanaged our economy.
he was a Shonkey Johnkey, spunky, hanky panky, cranky, stinky dinky, lanky, honkey tonkey, winky, wonkey donkey,spunky,hanky panky,cranky,stinky dinky,lanky,honkey tonkey, winky wonkey donkey,
oops not sure if im allowed to post that, well anyway its from wonkey donkey by craig smith for those of you who dont have children.
and no we dont get WFF!
Looks like the Herald has killed any feed back for the political stories, and a few have vanished now as well.
Just repeating what you wrote when you posted about the effects of the gst rise, that you had to make cutbacks when buying supermarket groceries, choosing to drink coffee at work instead of buying it because it’s cheaper.
You remember you wrote it, right?
Idealogically brainwashed to accept what you’re told, even though you admit to being in the same boat as most low income kiwi households, your position as vocal cheerleader for the nats needs a little perspective from time to time.
Personally, I reckon you’re as full of it as that bucket in another post, but you have your reasons, so troll on, I say.
The heralds poll is a shame – most of the comments were anti selling off assets, yet the poll rated around 50/50 earlier today – someones maths does not add up – so no surprises the feed backs going wonky as well.
ps love the added bit to wonkey donkey – wonder if the lab team can use it in parliament!
sham – not shame – please get an edit button!
@paul well the nzherald is a right wing newspaper so they are going to mostly get right wing readers who are going to make up the bulk of that poll.
I like the Cartoon. To me it reminds me of how pathetic our economy is. Ever since 1984 we have been falling behind Aus and the OECD average in GDP/GNI per capita figures.
From the Herald:
‘Also this week Labour announced an economic policy – a $5000 tax free threshold. The Government has criticised the move saying Labour has no way to pay the $1.3b cost of that.’
I believe the answer to funding Labour’s tax free threshold scheme is…ditch the Puhoi-Wellsford holiday highway and end up not only covering the $5000 tax free threshold cost, but also enjoy the benefits of having $300 million contingency left in the kitty.
Or put it into priority public transport projects around the country.
@ CV “50% of NZ’ers earn less than $27500 p.a.” So 1/2 of all NZ’ers ‘earn’ less than min wage.
I call bull on that.
I know under labour that being on the dole is a career choice, but get a full time job and pretty much you are going to be over that figure easily.
Heck even serving burgers at McDonalds can pay more than that in a couple of months if you have a good work ethic.
Good try – but fail on your figures.
Chris – Actually statistics show that most adults in New Zealand live on about $14,000, when you consider superannuitants, beneficiaries, those surviving on part time work such as single mothers working part time while raising children (eg only working school hours). Many jobs are not full time and many people can’t work in full time paid work (even on the minimum wage) for a lot of reasons. Those people who toss around an ‘average’ wage of around $48,000 need to realise that that figure is dragged up by the few on very high incomes (eg some lawyers, cabinet ministers, media and PR people and corporate heads.
This is why Labour’s policy of the first $5000 being tax free will make a lot of difference to many people.
when you consider superannuitants, beneficiaries, those surviving on part time work such as single mothers working part time while raising children
That’s all very sad for single mothers but emotive rhetoric is of no use in this case. Beneficiares aren’t “earning” anything, neither are pensioners. Regardless of any extraneous circumstances, they aren’t. We shouldn’t be taking people living off the government into account when calculating how much money people are earning.
We’re losing money, it isn’t the tax cuts it’s the spending. Tax cuts accounts for 3 billion. There’s a 15 billion dollar defecit and 100 billion in debt. That isn’t the tax cuts, even someone as economically illiterate at Goff should know that and its dishonest for him to blame the tax cuts while offering up an election bribe.
Basically, any Labour party hysteria and over-emotionalism (Ruth Dyson, I’m looking at you) doesn’t change that. Power prices rose 72% in Labour’s eight years, you weren’t fretting about that then, were you? So long as power doesn’t increase by any more than 8% each year under the long overdue sales, National wins.
Not emotive rhetoric but reality.
Single mothers, beneficiaries etc work at raising children and many also do paid and voluntary work. Contribute to social capital and all that sort of thing.
In that group earning around $14,000 you would have many small business owners too.
Power prices have risen steadily since Max Bradford chopped up and privatised our state assets in the 1990s, and the infrastructure was subsequently neglected which started to be addressed when Labour was in power.
I can assure you that power prices are of great concern to those living on low incomes. More privatisation is going to make them much higher.
No, really, it’s the tax cuts. We can’t have the government services we want without paying for them.
$15b over what time span? See, that $3b/year pays that $15b in 5 years. And the government isn’t in debt to the tune of $100b. The private people are but that’s as a result of a housing bubble caused by the free-trade/free-money paradigm carried out by the private banks.
No, really, it’s the tax cuts. We can’t have the government services we want without paying for them.
You can’t add. Then again you’re the fellow who thinks that a universal wage is affordable. You don’t really have the intellectual horsepower to talk with the grown ups, perhaps you should return to your beneficiary drum circle.
See, that $3b/year pays that $15b in 5 years.
Wow. You completely ignore where the other 12 billion is coming from and that’s wasteful spending, why do we need to own TVNZ or KiwiRail? They offer nothing to NZers. Even if that 15 billion is paid for over 5 years, the other twelve billion is still there building up, and the economy is gimped by over taxation.
Loius, you can’t see fact for the fiction you’ve been fed by key and his right wing media cronies.
The billions in tax cuts could easily pay for the services key will say have to be cut, gst would still be what is was before english got at it, and the affordable, first $5000 free tax plan would benefit all New Zealanders.
So simple it makes a nat’s head hurt.
The billions in tax cuts could easily pay for the services key will say have to be cut
Are you high? I’ll type slowly so you can understand
T H R E E B I L L I O N A Y E A R
Twelve billion is more than three billion, Al1ens. Y’see some numbers are bigger than others. The services that need to be downsized amount to 12 billion in total. Rerouting the tax cuts into Greek style social programmes would make it a nine billion dollar deficit. See, I know lefties don’t know much, too indoctrinated by their idealistic and expensive ideas, but surely simple subtraction and addition isn’t beyond your limited abilities…surely
Basically, if we hadn’t cut taxes, we’d still have to cut spending because it would be a nine billion dollar deficit. Do you understand? Or does your head hurt? It can be hard for IHC people, sorry, Labour supporters to grasp this.
first $5000 free tax plan would benefit all New Zealanders.
Here’s $10. Vote Labour.
Actually I have no problem with the plan, so long as they actually explain how it’s going to be paid for. But the public has forgotten about it, thanks largely to Phil Goof’s political inability in making a snippy remark about his hair dye instead of being honest.
You Labour party people really need to let the Helen Clark authoritarian, “you’re all brain dead if you don’t vote Labour”, Ivory tower, nonsense go.
Your response, though somewhat aggressive, is predictably lame.
Given the weight of your argument, I’m not at all suprised you’ve sunk to personal attacks.
Anyway, back to the real issue. key says we’re $15 billion in dept, yet borrows hundreds of millions each week, in part to fund the 3 billion needed each year to service the cost of top rate tax cuts.
A less idealogical government would realise it’s error and admit the Labour party were right all along when they argued against them in the budget debate in the house, and reverse the tax cuts as they are clearly unaffordable if state owned assets have to be sold to cover the gaping hole left by implementing them.
So simple it makes a nat’s head hurt, and get bitter and twisted.
11/2010 – John Key on Standard & Poor – Debt concerns
What I will say though is the way it’s been positioned by S&P and other rating agencies to us is, if your [public] gross debt to GDP or net debt to GDP is less than 30%, then you are in a small group of countries for which the rating agencies have no concerns in that regard.
That was absolutely where New Zealand was positioned, with a very small group of other countries – Korea, Australia and one or two others”.
So Bill and John are busy increasing the % of debt to GDP, but cutting government income through tax cuts that were suppose to be “revenue neutral” and clearly weren’t.
Geez Mr Key give up on the I’m the financial expert because you clearly aren’t.
Oh that’s right you made your money dismantling the Easten block state assets in th 90s, guess you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.
Damn this stupid ignorant national govt, they repeat the same mistakes over and over,,why can`t the people stop this idiot Key!
Of course, one makes % public debt to GDP worsen not just by increasing public debt – but by suppressing GDP growth.
(Acknowledging GDP being a shonky measure anyways).