Dumbest idea yet

The National-led government has announced one of its dumbest ideas yet: They want to sell off New Zealand’s military bases and have private companies (including, one assumes, foreign companies) lease them back to taxpayers—at market rents of course. Why? Well, of course private enterprise will be cheaper than ownership by the people! No company would even think of trying to profit at the people’s expense and, even if they do, well, profit is all that matters, isn’t it?

This probably came from the same National Party “brain” trust that thought it would be a good idea for schools to sell their buildings and land to private companies to lease back at market rents. It’s the same party that wants to sell off prisons, making the imprisonment of citizens a source of private profit.

This is the same National Party that promised it wouldn’t sell any state assets in its first term. I wonder if they’ll really keep that promise—or is that for sale to the highest bidder, too?