Not a Dunne deal | The Jackal

19 Jun 2012

Not a Dunne deal

Today, Stuff reported:

United Future leader Peter Dunne is refusing to back a Greens' amendment to keep partially sold state-owned assets open to public scrutiny, saying the party is being "mischievous".

The Government's legislation to enable the sale of up to 49 per cent of Mighty River Power, Genesis, Solid Energy and Meridian returns to Parliament today for a clause by clause debate.

State-owned assets are open to public scrutiny through the Official Information Act and the Ombudsman Act but under the Mixed Ownership Model Bill the partially sold enterprises would no longer be subject to those laws for commercial reasons which also exclude public companies.

Greens co-leader Russel Norman will put up an amendment to keep the state-owned assets subject such scrutiny.

However Dunne, who holds one of two crucial support votes for the Government, said today he wouldn't be supporting the amendment.

"I'm not interested in supporting anything the Greens are putting forward on this."

Yesterday the bouffant was complaining on Twitter that people under 18 were signing the Keep our Assets referendum petition, when there is no legal age limit to say they cannot.

It would seem that Dunne is more pro-asset sales than many National MP's, all after misleading the country prior to the last election about his stance on selling our future. Thank god this is his last term in office.