Signing up: Dr Stuart Bramhall says 3000 New Plymouth residents have signed the asset-sales petition
By Jimmy Hick
Thousands of
New Plymouth residents have signed a petition which aims to give voters a say
on the Government’s plan to partially sell State-owned assets.
Dr Stuart
Bramhall, who is collecting signatures in New Plymouth, said the Green Party
alone had collected about 3000 signatures.
“We probably
have five or six people in New Plymouth collecting signatures,” Dr Bramhall said.
The
petition, which aims to force a citizens’ initiated referendum on asset sales,
has more than 225,000 signatures but needs to reach 304,000 by next March.
The National
-led Government is trying to pass legislation which would see up to 49 per cent
Mighty River Power, Meridian Energy, Genesis and Solid Energy sold to private
investors.
Dr Bramhall
said the
public stood to lose a lot if the assets are sold.
“If we lose
this regular income we have from the assets, the Government will have three
choices – to increase taxes, to cut services or to go deeper into debt.”
Jimmy Hick is a Witt journalism student
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