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Speaker 1: Well, entirely predictably, the debate about selling state assets has

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Speaker 1: already kicked off ahead of election year, with Winston calling

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Speaker 1: the idea a tawdry, silly argument, and Chris lux And

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Speaker 1: then shooting back that Winston's view is not surprising. He's

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Speaker 1: been there for fifty years, for goodness sake. It's got

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Speaker 1: a lot of entrenched views. I'm actually surprised that Luxon

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Speaker 1: and National are prepared to take this to the election

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Speaker 1: because this is I mean, you can already see it, right,

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Speaker 1: and you know how it's gone in the past. This

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Speaker 1: is going to get heated, and National has not really

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Speaker 1: known at the moment for having the stomach for potentially

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Speaker 1: unpopular ideas. So good on them for doing it, because

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Speaker 1: this has got to be done, if only to inject

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Speaker 1: some private sector work ethic into these places. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I don't even know if I need to lay this

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Speaker 1: argument out for you, but I will. We know that

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Speaker 1: the public sector is slower to get things done than

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Speaker 1: the private sector. We know it's more likely to waste money.

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Speaker 1: We know it's less likely to make money. We've got

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Speaker 1: the figures last week just on sick leave, public sector

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Speaker 1: workers take more sick days than private sector workers. The

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Speaker 1: partial sale of the power companies that happened under John

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Speaker 1: Key's watch has already proved what can happen if you

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Speaker 1: get some private discipline in there. I mean, those four

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Speaker 1: power companies are now worth twice what they were when

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Speaker 1: we sold half of them, so we haven't lost any value,

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Speaker 1: and they pay more dividends and we got to put

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Speaker 1: money in our pockets. And they've proven that we can

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Speaker 1: do things differently to the way that it was done

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Speaker 1: in the eighties and nineties, which has freaked out Winston.

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Speaker 1: With the one hundred percent sale of things like B

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Speaker 1: and Z one hundred percent of B and Z, one

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Speaker 1: hundred percent of New Zealand Rail, one hundred percent of

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Speaker 1: Petro Corp. We can sell forty nine percent less than half.

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Speaker 1: We can still control the business, We get the money

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Speaker 1: out of it, though, we get some discipline into it,

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Speaker 1: and we make even more money from it now. Of course,

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Speaker 1: I think the power company sales are an example of

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Speaker 1: it going well. Others will blame those same sales for

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Speaker 1: a drop off an investment in renewable energy generation or

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Speaker 1: an increase in power prices, which is exactly why this

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Speaker 1: will be a contentious debate because we all see it differently,

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Speaker 1: so got on the nets for having the courage, by

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Speaker 1: the looks of things, to go their next election. For

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Speaker 1: more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen live to news

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Speaker 1: Talks it'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow the

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Speaker 1: podcast on I Hard Radio