Where did the asset sales money go? The slush fund pretty much according to Winston Peters … not where Bill English said it would go:
“The fund will provide New Zealanders with better public assets, such as modern schools, hospitals, roads, rail and public transport without increasing the debt burden on future generations” Bill English, Finance Minister 2012
This sounds like a cruel joke in light of current events. Pollution is so rife (thinking the honourable minister’s “future generations” statement) wild food is now so poisoned it’s largely inedible, waters we can only wade in, and hospitals, roads, rail etc have never been worse! I heard recently of a person who lay for literally hours in a cold corridor in one of our hospitals’ A&E (known as ED elsewhere) crying out for the toilet, too sick to get up, who got a round telling off when she soiled the bed! Waits in there currently can be many many hours. Still according to the minister, who doubtless on his salary can afford private insurance, membership fees for the IMF is far more important, to the tune of $23 million*. Remember this image? So why ever would Bill & his colleagues want us to prosper?
*(A fellow blogger tells me the IMF cost is FACTA legislation and should have been paid for by the US government as it is their legislation, read about FACTA at her blog here).
Proceeds from National’s state asset sell-off is being used to cover all sorts of costs like the TVNZ video archive, membership of an Asian bank and a visitor centre at Government House.
That’s despite Finance Minister Bill English promising in 2011 that all revenue from the sales would be put in a Future Investment Fund to pay for “schools, hospitals, roads, rail and public transport”.
But the latest breakdown of the fund’s expenditure shows just 55 percent of the spending fits that brief.
So what happened to the money?
Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank
One big ticket item is our membership to the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank which was funded as part of this year’s Budget and came in at a cost of $144M.
World Bank
Another bank membership has also been paid for out of the fund. In 2014, the fund was used to pay $23 million for a subscription to the World Bank.
Computer programme for ministers
Some of the cash was also splashed on the Prime Minister and Cabinet with investment into a document management project, CABnet, which received $2.6M in 2012 and a further $1.8M in 2014 — a total of $4.4M.
Doing up Government House
In all, $500,000 was also allocated to the Prime Minister and Cabinet to be spent on a new Visitor Centre at Government House in 2012.
Miscellaneous
Modernising the War Pensions Act 1954 and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act was allocated $6M.
Read More:
http://www.newshub.co.nz/politics/asset-sales-cash-used-as-govt-slush-fund–peters-2016060713
See our Agenda 21/30 and Banking pages for more info & links, &/or search categories for further related articles (at left of any page).
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Thank you!
That figures. What do we expect when there’s no accountability? Also, under Miscellaneous, the FACTA legislation should have been paid for by the US government – as it was THEIR legislation. The cost of enforcing US tax laws should be borne by the USA and FATCA, but the cost has been passed on to our spineless NZ government.
I’ve written about FACTA here: https://jobloggz.wordpress.com/2015/01/25/the-us-government-grab-for-non-us-assets-and-thats-a-facta/
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thank you for that info! Something I didn’t know. “Spineless” … you describe them well.
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Hi Pam, Thanks for reblogging that post about FACTA. Just to clarify, the legislation we shouldn’t be paying for is FACTA (the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) which is a US law. I’m not sure about the IMF fees – although they probably get enough in interest payments.
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Thanks Jo. Will correct that then. My misinterpretation or not reading carefully!! 🙂
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Excellent information thank you. I intend taking a private prosecution against the government for denying me and thousands of other disabled abused and traumatised people the professional mental health services we are entitled to under ACC, health, disability, criminal, imperial, human rights and bill of rights laws.
One of my key arguments is challenging the government that cuts to services or refusal to provide the extensive professional rehabilitation required under the above laws is due to a lack of money. Information like this proves there is massive amounts of money and what they are doing by denying professional health care, access to justice etc is a criminal act. Which has implications under the Electoral Act and having MPs removed for misconduct.
If you know of any person, lawyer or organisation that has challenged government spending (lack of spending) in this way please advise. If you have any lawyers or legal experts at your disposal please put me in touch with them so I can discuss this more fully. I am relying on the laws I read, don’t have access to case law, which they will have.
Don’t understand why this hasn’t been challenged, except I know lawyers have made the most money from disabled mentally ill & injured people being denied services, dumped in the community and many ending up committing crimes.
Kia kaha to us all.
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Unfortunately JR Murphy I don’t have any lawyers or legal experts at my disposal, I am simply a blogger who is concerned about corporate corruption and the direction our nation is going these days because of it. The points you raise are certainly important ones for accessing justice. Please keep us posted on your progress and certainly if I obtain any info that would be useful I will advise. Thank you for the comments and feedback. Much appreciated.
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