When you pay $50K, I guess you expect something in return. But when you are banged up in prison facing serious charges, I guess the payee don’t wanna know!

You can sign on to help collect signatures to keep our assets. Someone will be in contact next week with more details.

The release:

Keep Our Assets Media Release

27 April 2012

Asset sale petition approved

The Clerk of the House has approved the wording for the petition to get a citizens initiated referendum on asset sales.

The agreed wording is – Do you support the Government selling up to 49 per cent of Meridian Energy, Mighty River Power, Genesis Power, Solid Energy and Air New Zealand?

The petition is being promoted by a coalition of community organisations and political parties. Keep Our Assets will be formally launched on the 10 May 2012, in Wellington.

“I am delighted that the Clerk has approved the wording. Now we can get on with the job of collecting signatures. It’s a big job, and there is no time to waste. Everywhere I go New Zealanders tell me they strongly oppose assets sales. This is their chance to have a say,” Grey Power National President and petition promoter, Roy Reid said today.

“The petition to keep Kiwi assets in Kiwi hands will hit the streets tomorrow at a march in downtown Auckland. New Zealanders rallying behind this petition are standing up for a country they own, not a country that can be sold off to the highest bidder.”

“The approval of the petition comes after a week of submissions which reiterated New Zealanders staunch opposition to the Government’s Mixed Ownership Model Bill.  Kiwis know it makes no economic sense to sell our best performing assets. This petition will demonstrate unequivocally that Kiwis are dead against the sell-off.”

“We know from experience that privatisation of electricity companies means higher power bills for ordinary New Zealanders.

“There’s only winners from the sell-off of our assets- are the wealthy foreign buyers and the accountants and consultants clipping the ticket on the sale,” Roy Reid said.

The first of these Bills is the Mixed Ownership Model Bill, which will allow the Government to sell 49% of Meridian Energy, Mighty River Power, Genesis, and Solid Energy. This will be bad for the economy and the first step to full privatisation of these valuable public assets. There is a submission guide here to assist you in making a submission on this Bill.

The second Bill  is the Social Security (Youth Support and Work Focus) Amendment Bill.  This Bill will make life much harder for many people on benefits and is the first step towards the privatisation of welfare services. There is a submission guide here to assist you in making a submission on this Bill.

If you haven’t already made submissions opposing these Bills, please try to find the time today to do so, even if you can manage only a brief submission on each.

Fight the good fight for decent wages and conditions. The Green Party will back you all the way.

In this video, Maritime Workers’ Union members and their families talk about how the company (wholly owned by the Auckland Council – give Mayor Len Brown a call or send him an email) plans will affect their families.  Here’s what the Ports of Auckland dispute is really about:

Six weeks ago, Green Party Industrial Relations spokesperson Denise Roche blogged here:

My concerns are that the real agenda is about breaking the Maritime Union and reducing the working conditions of the Port workers, but also it’s about privatising our assets and undermining the new Supercity structure. POA is wholly owned by the Auckland Council, but its Board was appointed by the Directors of Auckland Council Investments Limited, who were in turn appointed by privatisation advocate and former Local Government Minister Rodney Hide rather than by anyone democratically elected by the people of Auckland.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown was elected in 2010 on a promise he would resist asset sales. Christine Fletcher, who leads the right wing minority Citizens and Ratepayers bloc on the Auckland Council, has already signaled that she believes selling at least some of the Ports of Auckland will, in her opinion, make vast improvements at the Ports.

Different date, but same deal. This dispute is not about workers being greedy. It is about a Government and corporate driven neo-liberal ideological agenda to smash the union, casualise the workforce, and eventually privatise Ports of Auckland.

Links to transcripts are below. Videos will be posted as they are made available.

Mojo Mathers’ maiden speech – Read transcript

Watch video, including NZ Sign Language translation:

Denise Roche’s maiden speech – Read transcript

Watch video, including NZ Sign Language translation:

Julie Anne Genter’s maiden speech – Read transcript

Watch video, including NZ Sign Language translation:

Jan Logie’s maiden speech – Read transcript

Watch video, including NZ Sign Language translation:

Steffan Browning’s maiden speech – Read transcript

Watch video, including NZ Sign Language translation:

Eugenie Sage’s maiden speech – Read transcript

Watch video, including NZ Sign Language translation:

Holly Walker’s maiden speech – Read transcript

Watch video, including NZ Sign Language translation: