Kiwibank could get asset sale cash: Key

Relevant offers

Politics

Treaty obligations to stay in SOE sales law McCully email thief could be Kiwi PSA disappointed Key won't discuss cuts Delays in privatising ACC work account No background checks on Education ministry staff Labour fears for Kiwis in ministry shake-up Defence staff eye leaving as morale falls No run on Kiwi farms - Key Crown account deficit soars Maori Party warns Government over SOE sales

National may plough back cash raised from the partial sale of assets into Kiwibank, Prime Minister John Key says.

Party leaders were addressing the Deloitte-Business NZ election conference in Wellington today.

Explaining plans to use funds raised from selling minority stakes in Meridian Energy, Genesis, Solid Energy, Mighty River Power and Air New Zealand, he told the audience the state-owned bank could benefit.

At the party's campaign launch in Auckland yesterday, Key announced National would spend $1 billion raised from the sale to transform schools over the next five years. The cash would be ring-fenced in a fund.

Asked about investment in Kiwibank Key said: "It's a possibility. Certainly the board of New Zealand Post has been floating that option for some time that they need capital injection."

Asked if he saw the irony in the proposal he said: "It's really about changing the mix of the balance sheet. What's not accurate is when people say we will reduce the Crown balance sheet."

This would grow over the next five years, he said.

"What we are saying is that we are realeasing capital from mixed ownership model and using it to acquire other assets."

In 2008 Finance Minister Bill English was secretly taped suggesting he wanted to sell off Kiwibank.

Key said English was in favour of the new plan.

Selling off New Zealand Post "would be quite challenging as parts of its business are not making money," he said.

Labour leader Phil Goff was cynical. He said he supported investment in Kiwbank but not at the expense of other SOEs.

"I heard this morning that he [Key] didn't rule out the selling off of Kiwibank and this time last year he and Bill English were talking about selling shares in Kiwbank.

"Bill English, when he didn't think the wider New Zealand was listening, said he wanted to sell off Kiwbank...they are pretending they are not going to touch it...their personal views are quite different."

Key also told the audience that raising the pension age wouldn't be necessary under National's plan. Labour proposed a gradual rise to 67.

Goff said "I think that is unbelievable and New Zealanders in their heart know that if we increase the number of New Zealanders in retirement from half a million to 1.3 million and the cost is going to double, the cost of healthcare skyrockets, then it's better to prepare for that now."

He said not acting now was "reckless".

- © Fairfax NZ News