News

In a move that is bound to have special resonance for students, the government has decided to delay the controversial partial sale of Mighty River Power (MRP). Following a Waitangi Tribunal report that was delivered to the government on August 23, but is yet to be made public, the sale is now expected to go ahead over the March-June period next year.

The government will use the intervening period to consult local Iwi on a proposal by the Tribunal, known as “shares plus,” which would give Maori purchasers of shares special rights above other shareholders. Despite agreeing to consider the “shares plus” proposal, Prime Minister John Key has been critical: “The tribunal basically came up with a concept they didn’t know much about.”

Critic decided to go all out on this totally-relevant-to-students story, and contacted some real-life MPs. National’s Michael Woodhouse said he “absolutely” supported the delay. Given the issues raised by the Tribunal’s report, “it was a sensible decision.”

Labour’s asset sales spokesman Clayton Cosgrove also supported the decision, noting that “nobody really knows what the shares plus proposal is” and that the longer MRP remained unsold and in the hands of NZ taxpayers, the better. Labour has been a vocal opponent of asset sales.

The government is “firmly” against shares plus. It is unclear whether the consultation period will be used to reconsider this position, or to try to talk the New Zealand Maori Council out of any further legal challenge to the sale. Woodhouse suggested both elements were at play: “While the Government’s position is firmly that it doesn’t support Shares Plus, it will listen very carefully to any new submission that is made on its merits.”

It is believed that a legal challenge, as well as any lingering uncertainties over Maori water claims, could negatively affect the price of shares if and when the float occurs. Delaying the sale and consulting Iwi is designed to avoid both contingencies, helping the government get the best possible price for the shares.

Critic prowled the university to gauge reactions, roaming as far and wide as Café Albany and the toilets in the Link. Most interviewees seemed totally oblivious to the obvious impact this news would have on students, giving Critic a series of blank looks and shuffling awkwardly away. Only one student offered her opinion, shouting “this is the ladies’, fuck off!” Critic obliged, muttering darkly about “student apathy” and “this affects us all” as it stormed off.

Meanwhile, Ngapuhi leader David Rankin has launched a claim for the wind, saying Maori should be compensated for the use of wind for commercial electricity generation. Rankin insists that the claim is “not a pisstake at all”, a radical turnaround from back in May when he slammed the water claims as “pure greed” and said: “These claimants need to be honest. What they are after is a slice of the pie. This is not about culture, it is all about profit and personal gains… It is only the elite few manipulating the masses who get to enjoy the money that flows from these settlements”.

Rankin’s press release about the wind claim invokes spiritual concepts, stating: “Traditionally, the wind was regarded as a deity in Maori society”. However, in an interview with Newstalk ZB, Rankin said the claim was “not at all” about a spiritual relationship with the wind. “You’re trying to class me as some sort of pakeha hippy, a pot-smoking hippy, I’m not into that PC carry-on… When you’re dealing with those born-again PC pakehas or those tribunal people, they live in that airy-fairy world, so if you go and negotiate with them, that’s how you talk. When I’m talking man to man… I’m talking a commercial deal, I’ll talk tough.”

Rankin has been a vocal critic of the Government’s asset sales program, saying it will put future revenue “into the hands of some Chinese investor”. Critic’s expert political team has determined that Rankin’s wind claim is an innovative political stunt with the dual motive of further delaying and complicating the asset sales process, and highlighting what Rankin regards as the absurdities of the water claims.

This theory is backed up by Rankin’s suggestion that aerospace might be the next resource to be subject to a claim, as well as his tongue-in-cheek response to the Newstalk ZB interviewer’s question of whether he would be claiming solar power next: “You’ve given me an idea there Larry!”