National Minister Chris Bishop has labelled NZ First’s proposal to buy back the Bank of New Zealand as "fantastical", and "fantasy land stuff".
The policy, announced by Peters on Sunday, would see New Zealand buy the bank from National Australia Bank, merging it with Kiwibank to create a new entity – to be known as "National Bank of New Zealand".
Peters estimated the purchase would be "something above $7.5 billion", describing it as an investment instead of a cost. The proposed bank would be commercially run and designed to compete with the major Australian-owned banks.
The New Zealand First leader said giving every newborn $1,000 for KiwiSaver and reclaiming BNZ from Australian ownership were long-term investments in national wealth. (Source: Breakfast)
On Breakfast’s political panel this morning, Bishop was asked for his thoughts on the policy and labelled it a “fantastical proposition”.
“Seriously, it's fantasy land stuff,” he said.
Bishop said he’d seen estimates suggesting it would cost between $24 billion and $30 billion to buy back the bank, with much of the cost paid through borrowing.
“That is basically, the next eight years of capital spending all in one go, so it would come at the expense of roads, hospitals, schools, and rail, which Winston Peters is also very keen on by the way.
He said there would be no more money to spend on those things, “because we’re buying back a bank”.
“Which, by the way, is not for sale.
“Normally, there’s a willing buyer and a willing seller – it’s not for sale as far as I know, so we’re paying a premium.
“It’s basically five, or more, City Rail Links, on a bank.”
Bishop acknowledged there was a need for banking competition and said the country should be backing Kiwibank, which he believed the Government was doing.
“But going to spend 30 billion bucks to buy a bank, I mean, honestly… Like no, no.”
Also on the panel was Labour MP Tangi Utikere, who called the policy “another reckon from Winston Peters”.
“I don’t think he’s serious about it.”
Alongside the BNZ proposal was a policy to automatically enrol all newborn citizens into KiwiSaver with a $1000 government contribution. Utikere believed that work around this could already have been done.
“Let’s remember, Winston Peters is in this Government, so if he’s serious about doing stuff in KiwiSaver, he could be doing that right now.”
He then took some shots at the coalition.
“This is a coalition Government that’s a circus, and I will leave it up to people to determine who is the ringmaster, who is the acrobat, and who is the clown,” Utikere said.
On Monday, Peters said New Zealand needed to “recalibrate" its approach to debt if his policy were to become a reality.
“We pay far too much costly debt everywhere… This is a world awash with money,” he said.
“New Zealand is one of those countries more likely to get investment because of the stability of our democracy.”
He also argued critics misunderstood his party’s financing strategy and the current state of the Australian economy.
BNZ was sold to the Australians in the 1990s after it encountered problems in the 1980s when it expanded into corporate lending after market deregulation. The then-Government spent over $1 billion to try to save it before it was eventually sold.
Peters called the decision to sell a disgrace, made by a “bunch of neoliberal nitwits and twits".
"Why are we paying all this money to an Australian bank to run parts of our economy… when we should and used to do it ourselves?"
The morning's headlines in 90 seconds, including more warnings about corrections corruption, a shocking death on a New York street, and Italy’s surprise scandal. (Source: 1News)
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