National won't rule out KiwiRail sell-off

Senior Cabinet Minister Steven Joyce has failed to provide a guarantee that National will not sell off all or part of KiwiRail, says Labour’s SOEs Spokesperson Clayton Cosgrove.

“I asked the Minister a very straight question in Parliament this afternoon. He ducked and dived and did everything he could to avoid answering before finally admitting: “I wouldn’t guarantee it because the reality is you can’t guarantee anything in this world.

“His comment is further evidence that National is preparing our rail company to be next on the auction block, after our power companies and national airline.

“Steven Joyce also admitted today that the Government knew about the planned write-down of KiwiRail as far back as 2010.

“That means they’ve got no credibility whatsoever when they claim they couldn’t quantify it in last month’s Budget. They must have known the scale of the write-down because of the ‘no surprises’ policy that SOE boards operate under. At the very least, they must have had an estimate.

“This Government is being dishonest. It had the information. It just didn’t want to share it with the rest of the country or include it in the Budget because it would have blown the deficit out by a further $1.8 billion.

“National has absolutely no credibility on this issue and cannot be trusted to do what is right for our country,” says Clayton Cosgrove.