Jenee Tibshraeny: NZ Herald Wellington business editor on the reactions to Labour's lack of info on the Future Fund policy

Labour leader Chris Hipkins doesn't think the public much cares about which companies would be in the party's Future Fund. 

It won't be revealing key details - including the cost to the Crown and which state assets would go into it - until after voters go to the polls.

NZ Herald Wellington business editor Jenee Tibshraeny unpacked the reactions to this announcement.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Here's a question for you. What do Labour's Future Fund

(00:02):
and New Zealand First's plan to buy back B and
Z have in common? The answer is they both badly
thought through policies that are actually there. Just to make
a point, genative training. The Herald's Wellington Business editors with
us I Jena Hey Heather. Okay, so let's start with Labor, right,
they're getting flat for having no detail on the Future
Fund policy. What's going on here?

Speaker 2 (00:21):
That's right. One of Labour's key policies, or one of
its only policies, is that it wants to take dividends
that the government receives from the investments it has in
various state owned enterprises, take those dividends, ring fence them
and then put that money into New Zealand businesses. So
they basically want to get money that would otherwise be

(00:43):
spent on health and education and whatever and put that
into New Zealand businesses, be that equity or debt. So
you know, when Labor was last in government, they actually
did this kind of thing already. You know, they took
their money and they lent it and they invested in
various businesses. Is what they're proposing to do this time
is instead of just taking the money from the government's

(01:04):
main pot of money, they want to specifically take the
money from the dividends they receive and invest that. So
it's just kind of creating a more complex structure. But
it's trying to make the point that they don't want
to sell state assets. In fact, they want to take
the dividends from the state assets and invest it into
other Kiwi businesses. So it's really about highlighting the fact

(01:24):
they are anti asset sales and.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
The same thing is happening with New Zealand first and
buying back B and Z isn't.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
It well exactly, So they're taking a much more dramatic
stance because you know, they want to borrow what I
believe to be about twenty four billion dollars and take
that to buy B and Z to again make the
point that they don't want to sell assets, in fact,
they want to borrow money and invest it in a bank. Similarly,
Labour wants to know effectively borrow money and put it

(01:50):
into New Zealand businesses. But you know, they are key
details missing with both policies. So with Labor we don't
know how much it wants to invest in the businesses.
And with New Zealand, first, it's very unclear about you know,
how much Benz would cost and how on earth it
would force Beanz's owner Nab to sell the bank because
bean Z is not for sale.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
Okay, So these two parties, and I think you'll bang
on with what's going on here, like the political message
they're trying to send. But if this is the political
message they're each trying to send, isn't there a more
simple way of doing it without embarrassing yourself with badly
thought out policies.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Well, I do think so. So I believe that if
you are of the view that you should take taxpayer
money or borrowed money, which is what these things are,
and invest that money into businesses, you know, in order
to keep the returns in New Zealand. That's what they
both believe. If you believe that, why not get the
Superfund and acc they have huge multi you know, billions

(02:45):
and billions of dollars invested, huge portfolios. Why not get
them to invest a small portion of their massive portfolios
in New Zealand businesses. So the government could give them
a direction and say maybe a certain percentage, or just
give them some of guidance and say, actually would like
a bit more of your money to go back into
New Zealand. Now, you know, I believe that way you

(03:07):
would be leaving the investment decisions in the hands of
the experts that are very good at super Fund and
ACC and would take the politics out of it, you know,
just an idea, maybe not quite as sort of complicated
or sexy as the ones that the two parties have
put on the table.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
When you tell the old birds that we're going to
buy back the B and Z. Boy, that sounds cool,
doesn't it?

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Love it?

Speaker 1 (03:29):
I do, Jenna, thank you as always appreciated. Jane to Trainey,
the Herald's Wellington Business editor.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
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