The Republic of New Zealand Party

Party Leader, Kerry Bevin, says a Republic of New Zealand Party government will reverse any sale of a controlling interest in Auckland International Airport to overseas investors.

“Our airports are a strategic part of our infrastructure and New Zealanders must control their ownership and management,” he said

The failed experiment of privatisation of telecommunications and the railways has shown us just how little foreign owners are prepared to contribute to the development of infrastructure.

“These corporate pirates milked these assets for all they were worth and then moved on.”

The Wisconsin mob left our rail network in tatters while continued failure to invest in our telecommunication infrastructure has put us behind other western countries.

“This, after taxpayers had invested well over $1 billion to upgrade technology, makes exploitation by overseas owners a bitter pill to swallow.”

He said the National Party stands for privatisation and wants to sell off parts of our health and education systems to their mates, while this Labour Government is allowing our water and power generation systems to slip out of public hands by default.

Mr Bevin said the Republicans would press for a section on national assets in New Zealand’s written constitution.

“We will introduce legislation to establish an asset register and protect our strategic assets from foreign ownership and control.”

He said it was high time that New Zealanders understood the effects of, and took a stand on, the alienation of our assets to foreign interests. Responsible Government is about protecting and managing those assets that belong to our people.

ENDS.