That aside, the point about the asset not being maintained means that the asset they have on their books becomes less valuable over time. The charge of profit striiping and not re-investing can be levelled at any investor: foreign,mestic and even the gummit.

I wouldn’t be surprised if all this jockeying with the canadians is because Owen Glenn wants to buy it and Labour are trying to keep it available. Nothing would surprise me from Labour as they contort the formal process to please their big business backers.

A judical review should find for the canadians they have bent over backwards after being shafted to try and show they will comply even with a retrospective change that should have been signalled to them before now..
there is an old legal maxim

Let he who comes to Court do so with clean hands.

A Court worthy of the name should see the government for what it is A dishonourable player who knew or ought to have known yet stayed silent until the 11th hour and then changes the rules for political gain destroying its citizens wealth in the process.

The Canadians on the other hand have acted within the law and honourably at all times.

However given the low quality of the current Judicary and their baise towards the Socialists sadly we will see the manipulation of the law so they can find for the government not wishing to upset their masters.

“Let the Canadian’s buy it – Owen Glenn will build us a new one – Whatever !”

Many a true word spoken in jest, burt.

She lives in a world vastly different to me and I imagine the vast majority of NZers

The PM’s knowledge and experience of commercial law is limited

The same goes for her knowledge of science, & economics.

In fact the only thing the PM can talk about with any authority is abstract social paradigms influenced by gender & cross country skiing.

“…..Cullen, Goff, Clark and I voted to sell an unbundled, publicly-owned Telecom at a huge price, much more than we expected to get at the time. Americans were the principal buyers. Helen Clark was then Deputy Prime Minister. She and the rest of us also voted for the establishment of airport companies from the publicly-owned airfields. We all knew at the time that what the Labour government was doing was correct, and in the best long-term interests of the country. We made those decisions in election year, consciously knowing that not everyone agreed. Once upon a time, Cullen Clark and Goff possessed guts and were driven by principles; they were capable of making the correct decision, not pandering to the views of those who couldn’t come to grips with what was in the country’s best interests.

No longer. Each of those ministers knows that trying mid-stream to block a Canadian minority bid for shares in the airport is wrong, and that they are destroying New Zealanders’ wealth. They also know they are passing a signal to the wider financial world that instead of being governed by honorable, predictable politicians, New Zealand has fallen into the hands of financial buffoons. They don’t care. If this means that overseas investors pull out and won’t invest here any longer, why worry? They’ll do whatever it takes to stay in office.

There is no valid argument against the purchase by foreigners of shares in New Zealand’s companies. Kiwis can purchase shares abroad. At least one New Zealand company has significant interests in European airports. Why can’t Canadians buy into ours? After all, they can’t uplift the airport or the buildings and take them away. The Canadians can’t stop us flying planes. If the airport were to change its operations or its inter-airline dealings in a manner that was anti-competitive, or not in New Zealand’s best interests, then New Zealand’s Commerce Commission would be down on them like a ton of bricks. And behind the Commerce Commission is the power of the government – something that should only be used in dire emergencies – to legislate against anything not in the country’s best interests. A bid for a minority share in Auckland Airport by a Canadian pension fund most certainly doesn’t fit that category.

Ministers are playing on the economic and political ignorance of voters. The New Zealand Herald this morning rightly labels them guilty of “xenophobia”. Whipping up a populist storm against foreign control is an old political game…..”

It’s been posted before, but here is a link to Michael Bassett’s article on the subject.

http://www.michaelbassett.co.nz/articleview.php

Correct me if I’m wrong but in those circumstances, no matter who owns / ‘controls’ the airport it can and would still be simply taken by the authorities for use while those circumstances remained.

Further, is it really that ‘strategic’ (implying national security etc) when there are countless other airports around, both military and civil. And again if it was needed then it would simply be taken by the military.

I don’t actually see the point in all this and it has certainly been either avoided or missed by the politicians.

Mind you, all of the above has probably already been bloggified over the last week. I been lost in strategic combat for a while

Millions of dollars wiped of the shares of ordinary NZders and Labour doesn’t care one bit.

And they want you to sign up for Kiwisaver.

You can’t trust Labour not to nationalise people’s Kiwisavers retirement savings in the future.

That is, to approve the investment on the grounds effective control of the Board has not passed to the Canadians.

This will be win/win for all.

On the one hand, the Govt can assert that their firm stance prevented control of a strategic asset passing to foreign ownership. Their “stated” mission (and yes a populist one) accomplished. They can embellish this by stating a Key led Govt would clearly have just stood aside and allowed control to pass overseas.

At the same time, those shareholders who do take up the Canadinans offer, cash in their investment at a premium price.

Everyone’s a winner.

If the Govt doesn’t approve the deal, then they deserve all criticism coming their way.

As I see it, the Canadians have just handed Cullen a major gift. Will he accept it? Their record this term doesn’t suggest the smartest decisions are always made.

lying pricks are cullen and co.

http://wellingtonhive.blogspot.com/2008/03/cullen-coup-plot-gathers-strength.html