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

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

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• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Here's a question for you. What do Labour's Future Fund
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  Speaker 2: and New Zealand First's plan to buy back B and
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  Speaker 2: Z have in common? The answer is they're both badly
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  Speaker 2: thought through policies that are actually there. Just to make
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  Speaker 2: a point, Genative Trainey, The Herald's Wellington Business editors with
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  Speaker 2: us I, Jena Hey, Heather. Okay, so let's start with Labor, right,
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  Speaker 2: they're getting flat for having no detail on the Future
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  Speaker 2: Fund policy. What's going on here?
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  Speaker 3: That's right. One of Labour's key policies, or one of
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  Speaker 3: its only policies, is that it wants to take dividends
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  Speaker 3: that the government receives from the investments it has in
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  Speaker 3: various state owned enterprises, take those dividends, ring fence them
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  Speaker 3: and then put that money into New Zealand businesses. So
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  Speaker 3: they basically want to get money that would otherwise be
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  Speaker 3: spent on health and education and whatever and put that
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  Speaker 3: into New Zealand businesses, be that equity or debt. So
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  Speaker 3: you know, when Labor was last in government, they actually
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  Speaker 3: did this kind of thing already you know, they took
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  Speaker 3: their money and they lent it and they invested in
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  Speaker 3: various businesses. What they're proposing to do this time is
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  Speaker 3: instead of just taking the money from the government's main
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  Speaker 3: pot of money, they want to specifically take the money
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  Speaker 3: from the dividends they receive and invest that. So it's
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  Speaker 3: just kind of creating a more complex structure, but it's
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  Speaker 3: trying to make the point that they don't want to
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  Speaker 3: sell state assets. In fact, they want to take the
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  Speaker 3: dividends from the state assets and invest it into other
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  Speaker 3: Kiwi businesses. So it's really about highlighting the fact they
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  Speaker 3: are anti asset sales.
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  Speaker 2: And the same thing is happening with New Zealand first
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  Speaker 2: and buying back B and Z isn't it.
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  Speaker 3: Well exactly, So they're taking a much more dramatic stance
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  Speaker 3: because you know, they want to borrow what I believe
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  Speaker 3: to be about twenty four billion dollars and take that
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  Speaker 3: to buy B and Z to again make the point
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  Speaker 3: that they don't want to sell assets, in fact, they
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  Speaker 3: want to borrow money and invest it in a bank. Similarly,
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  Speaker 3: Labour wants to know effectively borrow money and put it
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  Speaker 3: into New Zealand businesses. But you know, there are key
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  Speaker 3: details missing with both policies. So with Labor, we don't
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  Speaker 3: know how much it wants to invest in the businesses.
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  Speaker 3: And with New Zealand first it's very unclear about you know,
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  Speaker 3: how much Beanz it would cost and how on earth
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  Speaker 3: it would force bean Z's owner Nab to sell the
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  Speaker 3: bank because bean Z is not for sale.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, so these two parties, and I think you'll bang
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  Speaker 2: on with what's going on here, like the political message
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  Speaker 2: they're trying to send. But if this is the political
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  Speaker 2: message they're each trying to send, isn't there a more
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  Speaker 2: simple way of doing it without embarrassing yourself with badly
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  Speaker 2: thought out policies.
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  Speaker 3: Well, I do think so. So I believe that if
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  Speaker 3: you are of the view that you should take taxpayer
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  Speaker 3: money or borrowed money, which is what these things are,
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  Speaker 3: and invest that money into businesses, you know, in order
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  Speaker 3: to keep the returns in New Zealand. That's what they
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  Speaker 3: both believe. If you believe that, why not get the
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  Speaker 3: Superfund and ACC They have huge multi you know, billions
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  Speaker 3: and billions of dollars invested huge portfolios. Why not get
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  Speaker 3: them to invest a small portion of their massive folios
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  Speaker 3: in New Zealand businesses, so the government could give them
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  Speaker 3: a direction and say maybe a certain percentage, or just
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  Speaker 3: give them some sort of guidance and say, actually you
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  Speaker 3: would like a bit more of your money to go
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  Speaker 3: back into New Zealand. Now, you know, I believe that
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  Speaker 3: way you would be leaving the investment decisions in the
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  Speaker 3: hands of the experts that are very good at the
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  Speaker 3: super Fund and ACC and would take the politics out
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  Speaker 3: of it. You know, just an idea maybe not quite
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  Speaker 3: as sort of complicated or sexy as the ones that
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  Speaker 3: the two parties have put on the table.
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  Speaker 2: When you tell the old birds that we're going to
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  Speaker 2: buy back the bn Z. Boy, that sounds.
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  Speaker 1: Cool, doesn't it?
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  Speaker 3: Love it?
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  Speaker 2: I know, Jenna, Thank you as always appreciated. Jane tib Trainey,
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  Speaker 2: the Heralds Wellington Business Editor.
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