NEW ZEALAND: Central bank governor resigns!

www.stuff.co.nz | April 26 2002

[backhoe]

Thanks for the info, John.

[NativeNewYorker]

The Street respects Brash.

Would National and Act ever form a coalition govt?

[shaggy eel]

,,, true, Brash has a good track record. ACT has virtually been the defacto opposition since the last election. They have a small but fierce group of grassroots supporters that's backed by quiet, thinking voters. This group is on the increase with every crisis that evolves via Labour's policies. Brash is raking water uphill under this government.

A synergy already exists for ACT and NATIONAL whereby they work out who will be put up as candidates in each seat etc. They are both pro-US, to the point of NATIONAL signing before the last election for delivery of F-16s on a lease to own deal. You could expect more than that from ACT though. Closer to the election they will take the pulse and possibly drag the no nukes issue into the arena for debate.

[shaggy eel]

FYI - Regards!

[NativeNewYorker]

Thanks.

Is there any more talk about NZ exercizing its option to ditch the $NZ and form a currency/political union with the Aussies, as I believe is technically allowed under both nations' founding documents?

[shaggy eel]

,,, the thought of an "ANZAC" dollar has been talked over again within the last year, without any outcome or resolution. I don't personally see any point in shifting to such a unit or taking on the $AU. It simply makes us [in currency terms] users of a slightly bigger fish in the pond. A shift to $US would be a smarter move. Once again, ACT sees merits in this.

[NativeNewYorker]

Advantage to $ANZAC/Aussie currency would be liquidity and a general lowering of transaction costs/risk premia.

Disadvantage would be akin to that of the Euro, with forcing two economies into one currency pigeonhole. In your case, as your economies are so closely intertwined and have (at this great distance) similar political cultures, that wouldn't be much of an obstacle.

There'd also be the issue of deciding who/how to manage the new beastie, and that row would likely scupper any merger.

Adopting the $US would be a blunder, as your economies are not all that tightly tied to America's, and you'd run into a problems parallel to Argentina, tho nowhere near as severe.

[Bob J]

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[Kiwigal]

If you are not a socialist at 18, you do not have a heart. If you are still a socialist at 28, you do not have a brain....

Brash is a conservative, not a liberal (in the traditional sense of course, not the stupid Amercianised attempt by the "liberals" to legitimise socialism) so National was the obvious choice for him. ACT would have been too liberal I think. I say good on him!

[shaggy eel]

,,, at some point we'll become part of a formal trade bloc, Asian or otherwise and I guess the issue will most likely be addressed at that stage. The $NZ is a bit undervalued right now.

[Blunderfromdownunder]

Ouch, thats a mighty hefty cliche you are wielding! For me it was the other way around, I was an ACT-voting fiscal/social conservative at 18.

[shaggy eel]

,,, how did your head get so far up your butt when you started out so well?

[Blunderfromdownunder]

Transcript of Michael Cullen interview on Radio New Zealand re Dr Brash's resignation/National candidacy here

[Kiwigal]

I remember being very upset in 1990 when Labour lost to National. Mind you, the Labour govt then was very different to Helen's 1999 troop. By 1996 (when I was 18), I was right-wing, pro-ACT, but voted National at the election because I thought it needed all the votes it could get. 1999 was an ACT/National party/candidate split (my electorate at the time was Dunedin North, where Katherine Rich was standing for National. She is great).

I guess then I don't have a heart, but do have a brain. On your account Blunder, you have just informed us that you have neither. That's actually pretty funny, thanks for livening up my Friday! Of course, shaggy's comment made it even funnier.

Please Blunder, admit that seeing all the witty and intelligent comments by ACT members/supporters on this site has softened your hardened socialist heart just a little? (he he he)

[Blunderfromdownunder]

Ah well, as my knowledge of the breadth and depth human experience expanded I couldnt help but have the blinders lifted from my eyes ;-). As for ACT, heres what Russel Brown had to say about Rodders and the Sovereign Yachts "scandal" today:

"The non-scandal of the week really has to be that concerning Sovereign Yachts, the company that last year set up a super yacht building facility on some land formerly occupied by Hobsonville airbase. The government and Waitakere City worked together to speed up compliance with regulations so the company, which is owned by expat New Zealander Bill Lloyd, could set up.

It has been revealed that in the early 1990s, Lloyd traded in shares in the mining company Templar Resources, which was listed in the Vancouver Stock Exchange. He was its president and a director and failed to properly declare his trades - and was quite rightly slapped by the British Columbia Securities Commission, which in 1996 fined him $20,000, banned him from being a director of a publicly listed company for five years and told him to take a study course in governance. Fair enough.

Yet there has been some startlingly lazy reporting on this. Various writers - most notably Jane Clifton in the Listener - have been happy to go along with the portrayal of Lloyd as some sort of fugitive from British Columbian justice.

Shall we check this out, then? Oh look! There he is, being glowingly promoted, along with his business, on the website of the British Columbia Trade and Investment Office, which aims to help "strategic industries" and attract investment. So the state where he once breached regulations is providing active assistance to him and his company - and New Zealand, where he has never done anything wrong, shouldn't? Do me a favour ...

Lloyd's ban on directing a publicly listed company in British Columbia overlapped by a couple of weeks the announcement that he would set up here. But Sovereign Yachts is not a publicly listed company. It's his money. And the new base in not in British Columbia.

Moreover, it is tempting to muse that if New Zealand had insider trading laws as strict as those in British Columbia, then one or two prominent members of the local business community might find themselves in strife.

Lloyd is also in dispute with several creditors - three according to Lloyd, six according to Hide, who, as usual, has no evidence to back up his higher number - in Canada, including a former designer. The total sum in dispute across all the claims is around a million dollars - which might sound a lot until you consider that the boats he builds retail for as much as 12 million New Zealand dollars. Furthermore, he has apparently deposited money with civil courts until the disputes are resolved. It is very hard to see what more he could do.

Meanwhile, Hide continues to fling mud and simply walk away when it doesn't stick. He claimed the New Zealand government sold Lloyd four hectares of Hobsonville land at a knockdown price. Actually, it was sold for half a million dollars - the higher of two independent valuations - in accordance with the Public Works Act. Perhaps the land has since appreciated in value, but no one has produced actual evidence to that effect, still less that there was anything improper in the sale. Compared to the way in which various well-known New Zealanders made a killing in the 1990s out of buying and onselling public assets for huge profits, it seems inconsequential.

Hide then claimed that a secret deal had been done to sell another 50 hectares of former airbase land to Lloyd. Again, no proof was offered and the allegations were not repeated outside the protection of Parliament.

Meanwhile, the owner of the local contracting company that built Lloyd's giant boatshed has described him as "nothing but fair and honest". Lloyd is currently employing 40 people and plans to hire another 20 when a second yacht hull arrives from Canada in July. He has done all this with his own money. Rodney Hide - who was so recently happy to be hosted by Lloyd out on the harbour - seems to want to shut him down. It is shameful.

Then there's the business with the New Zealand Post board - Hide again, this time with his fellow bottom-feeder Murray McCully. They produced this week a seven-month old memo from the eternally unhappy man of the Post board, deputy chairman Syd Bradley.

In the memo, Bradley made various accusations against Post CEO Elmar Toime in a bid to have him removed before his contract ended. His fellow directors rejected the bid, leaving Bradley with two choices: resign if he felt he was right and they were wrong, or retract what he said in the memo. He publicly did the latter.

Post has had a bit of explaining to do - especially over its brief, bizarre business development foray into Spain - but to demand the resignation of the Minister of State Owned Enterprises on the basis of something happened - or, rather didn't happen - seven months ago on its board is preposterous."

Are you sure this is the sort of politician you want in government?

[Blunderfromdownunder]

This question goes for you to. Still, soon you wont have to worry about my carping; my passport and relevant documents went to the US Consulate today and if all goes well I should be winging my way to New Mexico in a month to work for the USDA. I suspect that there I will be to busy for regular FR sparring sad to say :-/ I will of course say a prayer know and again for your troubled souls

[shaggy eel]

Please Blunder, admit that seeing all the witty and intelligent comments by ACT members/supporters on this site has softened your hardened socialist heart just a little? (he he he)

Social worker! [LOL!]

[Kiwigal]

Oh no, Blunder! We will miss you! Mind you, I might be out of Freeper action soon too when I move to the private sector...

[shaggy eel]

,,, please don't leave us Blunder! Not after what you've told us in post #35. I'm clear now that NZ's only chance for redemption and true social equity rests fairly and squarely on your shoulders. Enter politics and I'll vote for you - you're a true visionary! You're a master of human experience and everything else you claim to be! I sit here day after day, gaining knowledge and a sense of accountability in order to play my part within the context of fading hope and your words are the only thing I live for.

piss off!

[Blunderfromdownunder]

Such vulgarity is unbecoming Shaggs, but I shouldnt be suprised given your politcs. OTOH my family has always said I would ultimately become a lawyer, a minister or a politician so who knows? I am afraid I am possibly a little to fond of the pleasures of the flesh for the Cloth, and have possibly spent to much time in universities already to go back for another round (that, and I wouldnt want to have to compete with my newphew at family gatherings). But if the archaeology doesnt work out, or I start to yearn for something different, I will certainly adhere to your wishes and enter politics. For the public good, and more specifically your own.