NZ Post/Kiwibank was I think on very shaky ground today defending its refusal to consult with communities facing service reductions. It was appearing before the Commerce select committee on financial estimates.
The state enterprise brands itself as being there to look after us Kiwis against the Aussie bank men in pinstripes; it goes further. It has a Group Statement of commitment to Corporate Responsibility. The entire management team has signed a commitment to engage with stakeholders in communities where it operates,to find opportunites to add value to those communities. Well Kiwibank and billpaying services at the NZ Post outlet in Linwood are being cut from the end of this month.Linwood has the highest number of sickness and invalid beneficiaries in the country.The nearest other Kiwibank is two bus rides away or a bloody long walk if you are on a walking frame or old and frail. The promised “engagement with stakeholders” over the Linwood cuts were today outlined as having alerted me and the city council. Hello? And the reason given why Kiwibank has refused to front at the 4 or 5 public meetings I’ve been to on this issue was that it did not want to encourage the community to think there was any chance of saving their Kiwibank service.
If Kiwibank wants to be regarded as the good guys, it should not give undertakings to engage and consult with communities that it fails to uphold. And yes I did observe they were acting like the Aussie bankers in pin stripes – and in fact, chief exec Sam Knowles and chair Jim Bolger were so dressed. If the cloth fits…
Those poor people
I think it’s disgraceful that they won’t even front up.
I expect Mr Bolger and Mr Knowles only bought their pin striped suits when the National Government was elected. There were probably orders from the shareholding Minister for them to dress in such a way as opposed to the black or grey non-striped suits that were the required uniform when Dr Cullen was the shareholding minister.
Was Dr Cullen at the financial review, Mr Burns? If so, what did he have to say about the closure of these outlets?
You might want to be wary of Dr Cullen however. As evident in this picture, he occasionally wore pin striped suits even before he was appointed to the Kiwibank board http://clarecurran.org.nz/speeches/07092008_launch.html
No sign of Dr Cullen today Mr Ellis – but the message would from me would be the same.
I believe that these closures are deliberate government policy. Make the bank less accessible – less profitable and then have an excuse to flog it off to the Aussie banks who are bleeding customers to KiwiBank and don’t want it around.
Yep, discourages the poor no-account no-accounts from using Kiwibank, which makes it an attractive li’l package to be sold off to ANZ after 2011 (see, we’re keeping our word! Not in this term!)
Brendon is right on the money here – there is a growing disconnect between Kiwibank’s image and reality. Kiwibank says this about itself “New Zealand needed a better banking alternative—a bank that would provide real value for money, that had Kiwi values at heart, and that would keep your money where it belongs—right here, in New Zealand.”
It’s hard to argue ‘Kiwi values’ when you’re stripping services despite making a huge profit. Which they are…
20 August 2009 “Kiwibank, the New Zealand-government owned lender, posted a 42.5% increase in after-tax profit for the year to June 30 to NZ$52.475 million”.
Something about this smells like the days when BNZ branches were being around the country, esp provincial/rural areas. Can someone ask Jim Anderton what he things the neo-lib/neo-con right are doing to his Kiwibank baby?
I feel like I might be living the NZ nightmares of the past again.
[edit previous posting: insert 'closed'] … were being closed around the country …
David Cunnliffe likes a nice pin stripe suit, as do many others on all sides of the house so I take it the description is a old fashioned (yep a pun there) attack on professional people as opposed to blue collar workers?
I was rather partial to Ryall’s get ups that he had in the early days of government. So many patterns! It was so bad that it was good, always a treat for the eye.