We are not a transit lounge for fucking Tasmania.

Here’s what shocked me so much about Bill English suggesting an eventual sale of Kiwibank, I agree with Ben and Tim that the words on their own are more mundane than Machiavellian but it is who said it and what was revealed that angers me.

To feel a certain cynicism towards National in the light of the Hollow Men e-mails is not conspiratorial, it is completely rational. Those e-mails make up a political book that gives an unprecedented access to the inner workings of a modern election unlike any other printed in our country’s history and demanding anything less than 100% scrutiny of National’s motives this time around is a democratic responsibility! I’m not suggesting for one second Labour are sinless in their 9 years of listless managerial governance, I’m not blind to their bullshit, I actively savaged them on Zaoui and Foreshore and seabed issues and protested at the first reading of the EFA – but we have damning evidence against National, and that trumps shrill cries for comparison.

That consideration aside, it was what Bill English said about the eventual sale of Kiwibank that shocked me and I think a lot of New Zealanders, he wouldn’t eventually sell Kiwibank because it was failing (it’s not, it has surpassed all expectations) but because his ideology demands that the Government does not own banks, leave it to the market. As New Zealanders we are all practical enough to agree that if a policy is failing then we should ditch it, being a nation of tight arises, we don’t like paying for more than we need, but to dump an idea that is working just because it clashes with an ‘ideology’ seems far too unblinking for the likes of many NZers who watched Bill English squirm his way through that unconvincing apology.

But it goes beyond that, at a time when we are struggling not to end up as a transit lounge for fucking Tasmania, here we have English telling us he’d like to sell our banking sovereignty, who to? My guess, the bloody Australians, the very country we are trying not to be gobbled up by, National seem intent on making richer from our silverware. Who would buy TVNZ? Murdoch? We already have presentations being made over the Tasman to Australian insurance corporates who are eyeing up National’s changes to ACC. Why would we allow our economic, banking and social policy sovereignty be sold off to Australia, and what would the real cost of that agenda be to us as a country?