The Deputy Prime Minister believes the Government would be better off with the part-privatisation of Interislander ferries.
A Treasury paper presented to Cabinet by the Minister for Rail, Winston Peters, says the Government can consider private investment to reduce costs.
David Seymour agrees with the idea and says the Government has been far too relaxed with capital.
He told Mike Hosking the Government is not a good operator of commercial enterprises, and there's no shortage of evidence for that.
Seymour says you have to balance the books, and at the moment the Government owns too many underperforming assets.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's look at well, it looks like the doors open
to some sort of part privatization of the new ferries
across the Strait. Cabinet has had a word apparently after
Winston Peter seems to have changed his mind around the matter,
and the Deputy Prime Minister to David Seymore he likes
it and he's all for it, and he's with us.
A very good morning to you, Good morning. May you'd
know about submissions, wouldn't you? With your regulation and your
regulatory standards bill. I've never seen this is immediately off topic,
(00:23):
very poorly conducted an interview. I've never seen a subject
that's so dry been having so many people exercised about it.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, I heard someone say, never have so many been
exercised by so few on so little substance. But if
I could just get one thing across about these so
called submissions. I think the public submitting on legislation to
Parliament as a critical part of the democratic process. But
it's supposed to be by people that have read the legislation,
(00:55):
understood it and has something constructive to add. What's actually
happened this hundred one thousand or so. Greenpeace set up
a website they give you a place to put your name,
and then they give you four statements about the Regulatory
Standards Bill which are false, invite you to click one
of those, and then you agree, and then you have
(01:16):
a preformed submission without ever having touched the bill or
understood it. And of course that's somehow called democracy. It's
actually a perversion of democracy, and it's mainly designed so
Greenpeace can get your email address.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Okay, fairies, how far has this got?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Well, Winston Peters has got the baton on this. It's
his job to go out and find the boats, make
sure that they're going to line up with the terminals,
which is the problem that the previous government got itself into.
And once he's done that, Cabinet I'll sign it off
and we should have by the end of the decade
some shiny new fairies, just in time for the current
(01:54):
ones to become obsolete.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Do we care who owns them?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Well, we do, because this government is facing pretty tough
times with debt. Frankly, it's not our fault, it's not
the previous government's fault. It's everyone's fault. But for too
long we've been far too lax about government capital as
a result, You know, we have the choice. We can
own a two billion dollar fairry business and if the
(02:22):
government's paying five percent interest, that's one hundred million every year.
Now it'd better be making at least one hundred million
to pay that back. But sadly, most government businesses are
making a loss on average, they're making a huge loss
across the board. And if people are worried about the
cost of living, which I certainly am, well, the biggest
cost that people have a third of the economy as government.
(02:44):
If you add on councils, it's two fifths of the economy.
And I think it's time for some honest conversations. Given
government's track record of being hopeless at maintaining hospitals, hopeless
with the state housing portfolio, owning a whole lot of
businesses that lose money every year, do we want to
keep spending nine billion in total on interest payments on
(03:05):
debt for assets that aren't performing. Because if people want
to do that, they can, but it's not going to
make the boat go faster.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
No, it is not. Is that view held across government
or would somebody like you have a battle on that.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Let's say that I think there's ideology and there's reality.
I have long had the philosophical view that government is
not a good operator of commercial enterprises, and there's no
shortage of evidence for that. But the reality will be
much more persuasive to whoever's in government. You've got to
balance the books, and at the moment we own too
(03:40):
many underperforming assets. We are really struggling as a result.
The New Zealand people who fund the government as taxpayers
are struggling and it's going to have to be a reckoning.
The alternative is people young and talented keep looking further
afield for opportunity, and I don't want that.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
No, that is quite right. I read out a thing
from principal on this is yet another subject on school holidays.
No one turning up because it was rainy and and
we're all et cetera, cea, Are you losing that battle
of getting kids to school?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
No, every term that I've been in charge of attendance,
we've had better stats than before. We're up almost ten
points on where we were in twenty twenty three, so
we are actually winning. However, I mentioned I actually tweeted
that it was sent to my electorate office by a youth.
A police officer who really cares about this topic. And
(04:35):
his text message back to the person was a face palm,
because when you've got presumably a principle, we haven't identified
them telling people, you know what, it's a bit rainy,
school's not a priority. That message goes out through the
community and it lets down all the good principles and
educators who are sending the right message. But unfortunately education
(04:57):
has gone down the totem polem. And you look at
the floods here at all two years ago there was
no reason for ninety five percent of students not to
physically go to school. In the aftermath of that, however,
only Auckland Grammar and Stanley Bay Primary actually stayed open.
They surveyed their people and it was fascinating. The teachers
(05:19):
or said it was far too dangerous to open. The
parents said that they had to. So there's got to
be a transformation and attitude, because if we don't pass
knowledge on from one generation to the next, doesn't matter
how many fairies we own were cooked.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Couldn't agree more. I was reading business desk this morning.
Let me ask you this, once again out of left field.
Is there a merger between Ministry of Transport Ministry of
Housing and Urban Development, in the Ministry of Environment, as
driven by Brian Roche, in other words, squeezing some people together.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, I don't know the answer to that. You'd have
to ask Chris Bishop, who's the Minister of most of
those things. However, I do know that Brian Roche is
pretty hot to trup. He's recognizing that there are too
many department, too many ministers, and too many lines of accountability.
I happen to happen to have given a speech saying
exactly that myself about two months ago, so I'm hardly
(06:09):
going to protest. If that is happening, then there won't
be much resistance from me.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Good stuff. Nice to talk to you, David Seymour, the
Deputy Prime Minister, act Leader and Assistant Minister Associate Minister
of Education.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Let's look at well, it looks like the doors open
to some sort of part privatization of the new ferries
across the Strait. Cabinet has had a word apparently after
Winston Peter seems to have changed his mind around the matter,
and the Deputy Prime Minister to David Seymore he likes
it and he's all for it, and he's with us.
A very good morning to you, Good morning. May you'd
know about submissions, wouldn't you? With your regulation and your
regulatory standards bill. I've never seen this is immediately off topic,
(00:23):
very poorly conducted an interview. I've never seen a subject
that's so dry been having so many people exercised about it.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Well, I heard someone say, never have so many been
exercised by so few on so little substance. But if
I could just get one thing across about these so
called submissions. I think the public submitting on legislation to
Parliament as a critical part of the democratic process. But
it's supposed to be by people that have read the legislation,
(00:55):
understood it and has something constructive to add. What's actually
happened this hundred one thousand or so. Greenpeace set up
a website they give you a place to put your name,
and then they give you four statements about the Regulatory
Standards Bill which are false, invite you to click one
of those, and then you agree, and then you have
(01:16):
a preformed submission without ever having touched the bill or
understood it. And of course that's somehow called democracy. It's
actually a perversion of democracy, and it's mainly designed so
Greenpeace can get your email address.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
Okay, fairies, how far has this got?
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Well, Winston Peters has got the baton on this. It's
his job to go out and find the boats, make
sure that they're going to line up with the terminals,
which is the problem that the previous government got itself into.
And once he's done that, Cabinet I'll sign it off
and we should have by the end of the decade
some shiny new fairies, just in time for the current
(01:54):
ones to become obsolete.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
Do we care who owns them?
Speaker 2 (01:59):
Well, we do, because this government is facing pretty tough
times with debt. Frankly, it's not our fault, it's not
the previous government's fault. It's everyone's fault. But for too
long we've been far too lax about government capital as
a result, You know, we have the choice. We can
own a two billion dollar fairry business and if the
(02:22):
government's paying five percent interest, that's one hundred million every year.
Now it'd better be making at least one hundred million
to pay that back. But sadly, most government businesses are
making a loss on average, they're making a huge loss
across the board. And if people are worried about the
cost of living, which I certainly am, well, the biggest
cost that people have a third of the economy as government.
(02:44):
If you add on councils, it's two fifths of the economy.
And I think it's time for some honest conversations. Given
government's track record of being hopeless at maintaining hospitals, hopeless
with the state housing portfolio, owning a whole lot of
businesses that lose money every year, do we want to
keep spending nine billion in total on interest payments on
(03:05):
debt for assets that aren't performing. Because if people want
to do that, they can, but it's not going to
make the boat go faster.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
No, it is not. Is that view held across government
or would somebody like you have a battle on that.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Let's say that I think there's ideology and there's reality.
I have long had the philosophical view that government is
not a good operator of commercial enterprises, and there's no
shortage of evidence for that. But the reality will be
much more persuasive to whoever's in government. You've got to
balance the books, and at the moment we own too
(03:40):
many underperforming assets. We are really struggling as a result.
The New Zealand people who fund the government as taxpayers
are struggling and it's going to have to be a reckoning.
The alternative is people young and talented keep looking further
afield for opportunity, and I don't want that.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
No, that is quite right. I read out a thing
from principal on this is yet another subject on school holidays.
No one turning up because it was rainy and and
we're all et cetera, cea, Are you losing that battle
of getting kids to school?
Speaker 2 (04:11):
No, every term that I've been in charge of attendance,
we've had better stats than before. We're up almost ten
points on where we were in twenty twenty three, so
we are actually winning. However, I mentioned I actually tweeted
that it was sent to my electorate office by a youth.
A police officer who really cares about this topic. And
(04:35):
his text message back to the person was a face palm,
because when you've got presumably a principle, we haven't identified
them telling people, you know what, it's a bit rainy,
school's not a priority. That message goes out through the
community and it lets down all the good principles and
educators who are sending the right message. But unfortunately education
(04:57):
has gone down the totem polem. And you look at
the floods here at all two years ago there was
no reason for ninety five percent of students not to
physically go to school. In the aftermath of that, however,
only Auckland Grammar and Stanley Bay Primary actually stayed open.
They surveyed their people and it was fascinating. The teachers
(05:19):
or said it was far too dangerous to open. The
parents said that they had to. So there's got to
be a transformation and attitude, because if we don't pass
knowledge on from one generation to the next, doesn't matter
how many fairies we own were cooked.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Couldn't agree more. I was reading business desk this morning.
Let me ask you this, once again out of left field.
Is there a merger between Ministry of Transport Ministry of
Housing and Urban Development, in the Ministry of Environment, as
driven by Brian Roche, in other words, squeezing some people together.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Well, I don't know the answer to that. You'd have
to ask Chris Bishop, who's the Minister of most of
those things. However, I do know that Brian Roche is
pretty hot to trup. He's recognizing that there are too
many department, too many ministers, and too many lines of accountability.
I happen to happen to have given a speech saying
exactly that myself about two months ago, so I'm hardly
(06:09):
going to protest. If that is happening, then there won't
be much resistance from me.
Speaker 1 (06:13):
Good stuff. Nice to talk to you, David Seymour, the
Deputy Prime Minister, act Leader and Assistant Minister Associate Minister
of Education.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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