Economic sabotage

Ever since National came to power it has concentrated on making the economy stronger.

It is succeeding but more than a year away from the next election the spectre of a LabourGreen government is providing a hurricane force headwind.

The government has put a lot of effort into policies which encourage savings, investment and export-led growth and LabourGreen are sabotaging that.

The façade behind the Labour-Greens power plan is crumbling as it becomes clear their electricity nationalisation ‘plan’ is nothing more than deliberate economic sabotage for attempted political gain, Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce says.

“Comments made in recent days by Grant Robertson, David Parker, and Russel Norman show they don’t care about the damage to KiwiSaver accounts, mum and dad investors and the wider New Zealand economy,” Mr Joyce says.

“Financial analysts including JB Were, Woodward Partners, Milford Asset Management, First NZ Capital, Devon Funds Management and Forsyth Barr are unanimous in their condemnation. One has labelled it a ‘hand grenade’ to the New Zealand economy, while others have said it will cut the value of every New Zealanders’ KiwiSaver account and lead to rolling blackouts.

“Investment in new power generation would suffer as would wider investment in the New Zealand economy. The National-led Government is focused on attracting investment in new business and jobs for New Zealanders. Labour and the Greens would do the exact opposite.

“Kiwis are deeply suspicious about the Labour-Greens announcement and its timing. It’s simply economic sabotage.

“The great irony is that it’s clear the policy is not worth it for anybody. The last time that we had central planning of the power industry, prices went up faster. Labour’s own Cabinet paper in 2006 said it would push costs up.

“New Zealanders will see it for what it is: a cynical and selfish attempt by left-wing parties to play politics with the value of New Zealand’s economic assets.”

The market isn’t perfect but I’d rather put my faith in it than an army of expensive bureaucrats.

And I’d feel much happier investing in companies that weren’t going to be at risk from government interference.

LabourGreens steal from us all

JB Were says the LabourGreen power plan will sap energy from the local market:

The Labour/Greens announcement on electricity sector reform concerns us on two fronts: firstly, the move to a state buyer of power risks being a retrograde step for the New Zealand economy. Secondly, we believe it will prove damaging for New Zealand capital markets, and comes at an unfortunate time given the significant progress made here since 2010. We detail these two concerns below: . . .

The damage to capital markets has already started.

Share prices in energy companies  fell yesterday in the wake of the LabourGreen plan to power us back to the socialist seventies.

TrustPower, which is 50.7 percent owned by Infratil, fell 5 percent to $7.18, leading decliners as fallout from the opposition parties’ plan to centralise buying of electricity and split generators from their retail arms weighed on utilities.

Contact Energy fell 2.8 percent to $5.31 and lines company Vector slid 2.1 percent to $2.82. Infratil dropped 1.3 percent to $2.30. . .

Those shares aren’t just owned by the wealthy the left hate.

They’re also owned by people of modest means who have worked hard and put something away for a rainy day.

They’re also owned by community trusts and other philanthropic organisations which fund charitable projects.

They’re also owned by insurance companies, including ACC.

They’re also owned by Kiwisaver and the Superannuation Fund.

The LabourGreen power plan is in sabotaging the value of investments is stealing from us all.