Headline: Rail Link in 2020? SOE sale cash gone by 2017
The money raised by asset sales is due to be spent by 2017 – making a mockery of John Key’s claim that the City Rail Link will be paid for from SOE sale proceeds, says Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Parker.
“Bill English said in 2011 that the proceeds from assets sales – dubbed the Future Investment Fund – would finish by 2017[1].
“Yet last week John Key claimed that SOE sales would be used to fund the Auckland City Rail Link, which won’t start until 2020. The second harbour crossing, which isn’t due to be built until 2030, is even further out.
“This is just wishful thinking. Assets sales have raised only $1.7 billion so far, from the sale of Mighty River Power. But since that was floated investors have lost ten per cent of the share value. That means they are likely to get less than the $3.1 billion budgeted from the Meridian sale.
“National has promised asset sales cash for every project they dream up in an attempt to justify the sell-off. They drag it out every time.
“The money is funding the Rail Link, the harbour crossing, Kiwirail, new schools and hospitals, irrigation for multi-million dollar farms, capitalising KiwiBank and rebuilding Christchurch. All the while it’s supposed to pay down debt.
“Bill English thinks asset sales can pay for ‘almost all of those things’. Tell him he’s dreaming.
“Spending the proceeds of assets sales several times over is National’s take on printing money,” says David Parker.
[1] http://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/informationreleases/budget/2012/pdfs/b12-2318709.pdf
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