Buy-back patriotism misguided
We have xenophobia in terms of Asian immigration concerns and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters%26#39; opposition to the free trade agreement with China. We have nationalism in the politicking against foreign investment in so-called strategic assets.
The line that takes the cake in that area is Prime Minister Helen Clark on the subject of the Canadian bid for a minority stake in Auckland airport.
%26quot;I%26#39;m an Aucklander,%26quot; Miss Clark declared. %26quot;I%26#39;ve got no personal enthusiasm for seeing that hugely important piece of infrastructure go from New Zealand.%26quot;
In that one sentence Miss Clark managed to conjure up for her constituency the image of Auckland airport somehow being dismantled in the middle of the night and spirited away overseas, lost for Auckland and for travelling Kiwis.
In terms of dog whistle politics that was as good as Mr Peters%26#39; opposition to the China free trade agreement and his party%26#39;s concerns on Asian immigration.
Auckland airport was sold in 1998. The Canadian offer was for a minority stake and even smaller voting powers. It was not the sale of a state asset, just a change in composition of the shareholders.
As a result of government interference, 28,000 Mum and Dad investors have now seen the value of their shares plummet when they could have realised a windfall at a time of general malaise on the rest of the sharemarket.
The Overseas Investment Office gave the tick of approval to the Canadian bid, but that did not worry the two Cabinet ministers charged with making the final decision.
Right on cue they rejected the bid on the eve of the Labour Party%26#39;s election-year congress, leaving Miss Clark to trumpet the decision to the faithful.
Asset sales would be a defining difference between Labour and National, Miss Clark declared, raising the spectre of brave Labour patriots clutching the family silver and fending off National Party brigands wanting to steal it.
National is on a hiding to nothing on this. Party leader John Key was bound to oppose Labour%26#39;s veto of the Canadian bid after it had been ticked by the OIO. And he was bound to take issue with Finance Minister Michael Cullen changing the tax rules mid process in a bid to stymie the bid. That sends banana republic messages to investors.
Labour will blur the principles involved in the airport stance in an attempt to show that National is soft on selling state assets.
Similarly, Labour%26#39;s plans to buy back the railways and Cook Strait ferries from Toll NZ, carefully timed for election year, will give further opportunities. The ramifications of this will have to be questioned by the Opposition, both in Parliament and on the hustings.
Agreeing to the buy-back will leave National accused of %26quot;me too%26quot; politics; opposing it will lead to charges of being unpatriotic.
Mr Key is aware of the dangers lurking in this most emotive of all policy areas. He has moved to clarify and simplify some of the overly-complicated asset sales policies which National fielded at the last election in a bid to balance caucus factions at the time.
He spelled the policy out on TVNZ%26#39;s Agenda programme at the weekend, saying there would be no asset sales %26ndash; %26quot;either partially or fully%26quot; %26ndash; in National%26#39;s first term in office.
If a change was envisaged National would seek a mandate from the electorate.
Mr Key said asset sales were not needed and the previous policy of selling a quarter share in SOE Solid Energy, for example, would be distracting when a new Government would have more urgent priorities.
Mind you, volatile though the asset sales issue is, economic concerns are likely to be a defining factor in November: high interest rates, tight credit, depreciating house values, more finance companies joining the 17 which have already gone to the wall, petrol at $2 a litre, escalating food bills.
Bill Clinton%26#39;s political strategist James Carville was no Samuel Johnson, but he coined the famous 1992 slogan to keep the troops %26quot;on message%26quot; about the central theme of the campaign.
The cryptic but pertinent sign over his desk at headquarters in Little Rock read: %26quot;It%26#39;s the economy, stupid.%26quot;
