John Key has used the failure of Solid Energy to attack the SOE model, saying that the company would still be afloat if it had been part-privatised:
If Solid Energy was partly privatised, it probably would not be in the mess it is in now, Prime Minister John Key says.
Continuing to defend the Government's sell-down of state assets, Key said today a deal to bailout Solid Energy might not have been necessary had the company been partially floated.
"My own personal view is if we'd had the mixed ownership model applied to Solid Energy, it may well not have gotten itself in the mess it did," he told Firstline.
"That's because the external analysis would have rung a lot of bells and demanded a lot more accountability," he said.
So basicly he's attributing Solid Energy's failure to a failure of oversight. But who provided that oversight/ board members appointed by the government, and ultimately Ministers appointed by him. So what's he's saying is that National failed to run Solid Energy properly. Rather than demanding further privatisations, maybe he should tackle the real problem, and demand the resignations of Bill English and Tony Ryall.
