Ethan Griffiths: Newstalk ZB political reporter on Treasury calling for asset sales as concerns raised over Govt finances

Treasury is nudging the Government to sell state assets that are underperforming or are no longer fit for purpose.

It is continuing to sound alarm bells over the Crown’s finances being on an 'unsustainable' path forward.

Newstalk ZB political reporter Ethan Griffiths explained the situation further.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from Newstalks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
EDB Joining me now is News Talks ZB political reporter
Ethan Griffiths. Hey, look, we've just been talking boot camps.
We did try to get the Children's Minister on the
show this morning about the report and the next step
with these boot camps, but unfortunately she was unavailable. What
do we know in terms of next steps with these
boot camps from the government?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, this is interesting, honestly, the answer is not much.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
Now.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
Interesting to note here that the government put aside thirty
three million dollars in this year's budget for the program
to be extended over the next four years, so the
money's there. But I rang around a few people on
the behive on Friday and they said that Cabinet hasn't
made a final decision on whether to continue it yet.
There's also legislation before the House which would essentially allow

(00:59):
these boot camps to be used as a form of
sentencing in court and in youth court. But we don't
really know where it's going because Cabinet hasn't made those decisions.
But there is the funding there if they choose to
push ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Okay, Treasury, Now this is an interesting little story. Treasury
has come out and sort of made the point that
the government needs to sell some state assets that are
underperforming or no longer fit for purpose because the crown
finance is unsustainable. They're not bringing in enough revenue to
keep the lights on and future governments are going to

(01:34):
need to hike taxes and all cut spending to prevent
the Crown's books from spiraling into the red. This is,
of course, off the back of a three yearly investment
statement from Treasury. How's the government responding to this, because
of course they're telling us we're all about growth and
they're going to get the books in order.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Yeah. Well that's the interesting thing, right. So the National
Party anyway, came into government after campaigning on not selling assets,
so they've promised the electorate no, we're not going to
sell assets. This term act. On the other hand, almost
in a bit of a free for all situation, they
want to sell as many assets as they can. New
Zealand first also not a fan of selling assets. But

(02:13):
of course this report's come out and it's quite striking
really the government does own a lot of assets. I
didn't realize this myself. It's about one hundred thousand dollars
worth of assets for every New Zealander, five hundred and
seventy one billion dollars worth. And this is everything from
schools to dockland controlling shares and the Gen Taylor's Andy
in New Zealand, the super Fund. I mean, the list

(02:33):
goes on here and as you say, a lot of
these just simply aren't performing. Treasury says the government should
take a look at potentially selling more. And I think
this is something we're going to hear a lot about
in the next twelve months now. As I said, last election,
National promise they wouldn't sell any assets this term, but
now we asked them two weeks ago, look is something
on the agenda for next election perhaps and Prome mister

(02:56):
Chris flux And said the party hadn't discussed it and
they wouldn't, but he wouldn't rule it out at the
same time as he did before the last election. So
it'll be interesting to see where this goes. Labor of
course massively anti asset sales, but with Treasury making this recommendation,
it could be a good plank for National to come
out and say, look we may not have a choice here.

Speaker 2 (03:18):
If we've got state assets that are underperforming or no
longer fit for purpose, does anyone else want them? And
should we actually be making them fit for purpose with
that or a better idea.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
That's the age old question, right, Can the government make
them more fit for purpose? Or are they better in
private hands? I mean you could make that argument for
a number of assets that the government sold over the years,
particularly in the eighties and nineties. So again it just
comes back to that question. It is a business more
viable in private hands than with the government running it.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
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