New Zealand Post has announced its strategy for the next five years, including a plan to reduce its workforce by between 1,500 to 2,000 over the next three years by phasing out cycling posties and getting out of owning its own Post Offices.
NZ Post Chairman Michael Cullen said the group planned to eventually be mostly a bank with attached postal and courier services.
He said Kiwibank did not need fresh capital in the next year or two, but would need capital to keep expanding beyond then.
He said NZ Post was in discussions with the government about capital injections for Kiwibank and had already had informal discussions with the New Zealand Superannuation Fund about investing in Kiwibank.
Cullen said there were no plan for a part privatisation or stock market float of Kiwibank because it would damage the bank's brand as being completely New Zealand owned.
He said Prime Minister John Key had also repeatedly said Kiwibank was not part of the Government's 'Mixed Ownership Model'.
(Updated with more details from a Wellington news conference)
16 Comments
Don't panic about this anyone, there's 200 jobs going for experienced miners who'll need their mail.....then there's the cycle track with mail lanes...then there's, ahh no wait , hang on Air N.Z. will lose twelve hundred in the next 15 months....so where did we get to...?
Well there's the cycle track, jewel of the job creation scheme...then ah, um,,nope I'm out.
Well there's the cycle track, jewel of the job creation scheme...then ah, um,,nope I'm out.
You forgot the jewel in the crown non high tech money transfer scheme - read PPP - just approved this week.
Construction on the controversial $1.3b Transmission Gully road link will begin in the second half of next year - and open to traffic in 2020.
Prime Minister John Key confirmed the move at a keynote speech to Wellington's Chamber of Commerce this afternoon.
Key confirmed work on the 27-kilometre road, a key part of the $2.5b "northern corridor" from Levin to Wellington airport, would begin next year.
He emphasised the capital's importance as a transport hub.
"The recent earthquakes have boosted the already-strong case to upgrade routes into and out of the region so it can better cope with such events," he added.
The upgrade will shave 40 minutes off the morning peak travel time from Levin to the capital by 2031, he said. It will also cut road fatalities from 140 to 100 within five years of opening.
And he claims it will create "thousands of new construction jobs" Read more
Let's hope this project turns out better than the asset sales:
The Government's asset sales programme has been an unmitigated disaster – so disastrous it borders on economic vandalism. Valuable assets built up over generations have been hocked off at firesale prices to a handful of investors because Mr Key's Government could not bear to admit now was not the right time to sell. Arguing that partial private ownership is an improvement on the status quo whatever the price is fatuous. Read more
Did some quick maths..
27km @ 1.3bn
= $48148 per linear meter of roading... although buldozing through dirt and rock may explain the extortionate expense.
I bet those folks in Shannon are excited by this...then again, once they arrive in Wellington to their minimum wage job they'll be paying $20-30 a day for parking....
Did anyone consider an upgrade of the railway into Wellington connecting the provinces?! I appreciate this isn't the UK with 12mln in the South East but wouldn't an efficient rail link between PN - WLG ease traffic congestions, reduce fatalities on the road and be a "cleaner" option??
I bet this contractor is licking his or her lips at the prospect of being paid $125mn p.a for the next 10 years...
Isn't that the reason Auckland are attempting to move to more public transport...
So many questions to be asked...
Thanks for that Stephen, was this the same guy who said twelve months ago, Wellington was a dying city...? then rips into the speech earlier this week like he's going to an early election.
Thousands of Jobs...? really ..?talking bollocks does not transform into material jobs ...see cycle way...see any bloody thing you like...didn't happen.
Of course there is building houses for each other , but now we are even importing that skill set.
Under the current Administration downsizing has been the most prominent activity in the productive sector.... mfg export for openers. great for the shareholders though...!
Hey and we're all shareholders in a trickle down economy afterall.....don't make me puke..!
Thousands of jobs. Like over the ditch?
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/miners-figures-dont-add-up-20131011-2ve2h.html
Excellent article. Have to hand it to Aussie quangos. They're far more independent than their Kiwi counterparts who usually go silent at the slightest political pressure or tone down their reports.
I still haven't heard anyone explain why Waihi has such bad local income and social figures considering the huge gold mine that surrounds and tunnels underneath it
thats an excellent article and very well describes the problem with economics. No punches pulled. Love it.
Does anyone want to bet against my year beginning prediction that unemployment will be closer to 7% than 6% at year's end (the latter being most economists' prediction, and the govt's rhetoric)
Absolutely brilliant piece. This Justice Preston should be immediately headhunted and bought to NZ to work. I don't care what salary he wants. The savings in just the old boy sports rorts i.e "new rugby grounds for the boys", and "new stadium for cricket" would be paid for in days.
" getting out of owning its own Post Office" Lets guess that that's a victim of the Earthquake hysteria - aws those buildings have been owned by the PO for a long time so hardly makes financial sense to move from a paid off building to a rental bill without volume of operation criteria. And if it's having a detrimental effect on such an entrenched vital service imagine just what it's doing to the private sector... Bloody revenue generation/market shoving legislation....
Of course they're not looking at MOM for Kiwibank...can't sell the child to the foreigners if it's got multiple shareholders....
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