Dear World,
Today the New Zealand Government
passed a bill permitting the Government to sell property that
does not belong to them. If an individual sells property that does not belong to
them it is theft and constitutes a criminal offence. The Government today legalised
the partial conversion of state assets against the will of the people of New
Zealand.
The Government claimed that they
had a mandate to partially sell state assets because they campaigned on the
issue for the year leading up to the last election in 2011 in which they were
re-elected. On election night, the
National Party only secured 47% of the vote while 53% of those who voted did
not support the National Party. New Zealand also suffered its lowest voter
turnout in history signalling the lack of confidence our people had in the
Government.
Public polls, protests, and
multiple media streams have demonstrated the persistent opposition to the partial
sale of our assets and the people of New Zealand will persist with their
opposition until the Government listen to the democratic will of our people.
The Mixed Ownership Model Bill
today passed its third reading meaning that it will become law after assented
to by the Governor General. It passed its third reading by a single vote –
61:60. The balance of power, the one vote, was held by a Member of Parliament who
represents a single electorate. In the months leading up to the passage of this
bill, his electorate campaigned heavily against the sale of state assets and
urged him to refrain from allowing this bill to pass. He did not listen. He
chose to override the democratic will of his constituents and voted in favour
of this bill.
During the Select Committee stage 1448 submissions were received. Only 9 (0.6%) of those submissions were in favour of the bill while 1421 (98.1%) of the
submissions were opposed to the sale of state assets. The Government abused its authority and position of a
bare majority to ram through the bill knowingly and deliberately in the face of
public opposition.
The people of New Zealand have
made it clear that they wished to exercise their democratic right to a
referendum and petitions for a referendum are currently in circulation. The
Government refuses to hold off the partial sale to allow a referendum, arguing
that a referendum has been held and it was called the election. This
illustrates to the world that our Government is not only arrogant but is also
anti-democratic. It is silencing our voices and suppressing our will.
This is a pledge to the world
community to reprimand our government for its anti-democratic practices.
This is a pledge to boycott the purchasing
of any shares the Government offers in respect of the partial sale of our assets. The Government will embark on a multimillion dollar advertising campaign which will dishonestly and
without claim of right represent to potential investors that they, the Government, have the
consent of the rightful owners to sell 49% of shares in these companies. If you purchase these shares then you do so
against the will of the people who are the rightful owners and are simply an
accessory to the crime against our people.
The Government has accused us of
being xenophobic, we are not. The people of New Zealand value foreign
investment and look forward to securing investments with foreign interests now
and in the future but we do not want assets that were bought with our taxes to
be sold without our consent.
Please help the people of New
Zealand raise their voices against the anti-democratic practices of our
Government. Please support us in keeping our assets for the benefit of our
future generations.
You can support the people of New Zealand by sharing our message.
Thank you.
