Foreign Ownership

The Green Party is rejecting calls by New Zealand First to privatise KiwiBank.

“Winston Peters seems to have lost his way in the middle of the economic crisis,” Green Party Co-Leader Russel Norman says.

The Green Party is calling on the New Zealand Superannuation Fund to buy back the South Island electricity grid if Wachovia Bank - which effectively owns the grid - collapses as expected.

The Green Party is calling on the Government to make a public commitment not to weaken Pharmac and not to weaken laws on genetic engineering or foreign ownership in any trade deal with the United States.

The Greens are calling on the Government to take action after a report that overseas buyers are swooping on the New Zealand property market, keeping out first time home buyers.

Today’s decision to allow the sale of Wellington’s electricity network to a foreign consortium marks a black day for Wellingtonians, Green Party MP Sue Kedgley says.

“The Government should have stepped in and prevented the sale as it did for Auckland Airport.”