This is edition 2025/191 of the Ten@10 newsletter.
Hi all,
This is the Ten@10, where I collate and summarise ten news items you generally won't see in the mainstream media.
Enjoy!
1. The Wrong Solution to the Wrong Problem
Roger Partridge
- 🏗️ Infrastructure Crisis Acknowledged: Labour’s first 2026 policy admits New Zealand faces a $210 billion infrastructure deficit but fails to offer a credible fix.
- 💰 The “Future Fund” Plan: Chris Hipkins proposes diverting Crown asset dividends into a new fund for investing in NZ businesses and infrastructure, managed by the Super Fund’s Guardians.
- ⚠️ Flawed Approach: Instead of selling underused Crown assets to fund essential infrastructure, Labour wants to keep all assets and redirect their earnings — a move critics call backward.
- 🏢 Corporate Welfare Rebranded: The plan mirrors Singapore’s Temasek Holdings in name only; unlike Temasek’s profit-driven global mandate, Labour’s fund would serve political goals like job creation.
- 🧟 Zombie Funds Return: Labour’s track record — from the 2002 Venture Investment Fund to the 2019 Elevate and Green Investment Funds — shows repeated, underperforming state venture capital schemes.
- 🧮 Economics Ignored: Nobel-winning research shows prosperity comes from competition and “creative destruction,” not government-directed investment.
- 🏦 Duplicate Sovereign Fund: NZ already has the $89 billion Super Fund focused on long-term returns; Labour’s new fund would risk that model with politically motivated investments.
- 🏠 Asset Recycling Alternative: Selling or leasing non-essential Crown assets (like TVNZ or electricity shares) could finance new infrastructure directly without raising taxes or debt.
- 🇦🇺 Lessons from NSW: New South Wales raised A$53 billion through asset recycling since 2012, using proceeds for transport, hospitals, and regional projects — all under transparent governance.
- 🔍 Transparency Wins Support: NSW residents back asset recycling because funds are ring-fenced and results are visible — unlike NZ’s unfocused 2014 Future Investment Fund.
- 🏇 Proven Model Exists: Labour’s 2023 concession of TAB NZ to UK-based Entain shows partial divestment can preserve public goals while freeing capital.
- 🧭 Opportunity for the Coalition: The National-led Government can contrast its asset-recycling approach with Labour’s interventionism, turning dormant assets into public benefit.
- 📊 Blueprint Ahead: The New Zealand Initiative will publish a report detailing disciplined, transparent asset recycling to fund lasting infrastructure.
- 🔓 Core Message: Labour would lock capital into political pet projects — the Government should unlock it for infrastructure that genuinely serves New Zealanders.
