Ministers Refuse To Pay Rent to "Mum and Dad" Investors

new-zealand-first-party

Wed Dec 04 2013 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Ministers Refuse To Pay Rent to “Mum and Dad” Investors

Wednesday, 4 December 2013, 3:14 pm
Press Release: New Zealand First Party

Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader

4 December 2013

Ministers Refuse To Pay Rent to “Mum and Dad” Investors

Rt Hon Winston Peters says the Government is acting like a shonky finance company by refusing to pay a debt racked up by the government-owned company Learning Media.

When Learning Media was winding up, it paid a creditor (Westpac) by the Government pumping about five million dollars into it by using share offers. However it has not paid the rental on the building Learning Media occupied – a building owned by Kiwi investors.

Mr Peters today asked the Education Minister why she was allowing Learning Media to welch on a debt.

“The Government made sure there was enough money to pay a foreign bank and its mates but as usual Kiwis are getting their noses rubbed in the dirt.

“It is absolutely appalling that two Ministers – of Education and Finance – could allow a state owned company to default on money it owes through a legitimate government transaction.”

Mr Peters says the Government has offered the building’s owners a pittance on a “take it or leave it” basis and he says this is simply not acceptable.

“Remember how the Government paid its mates who invested in South Canterbury Finance nearly $1.6 billion dollars when the company went under?

“For the sake of little over a million dollars the Ministers should try to restore some credibility and pay the rent incurred by Learning Media,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

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