Friday, May 27, 2011



"Mum and dad investors"

When the government has been pushing privatization, it has relentlessly pushed the idea that the buyers of these state assets will be "mum and dad investors". The implication: the buyers will be ordinary kiwis (though why anyone would want to buy something they already own is beyond me).

Now it turns out that that's not the case. Bill English has been touring Singapore and Hong Kong pimping our assets to the Chinese, who are of course very interested in getting their hands on profitable state-owned monopolies. So much for the idea of "mum and dad" investors...