John Key’s announcement on loyalty scheme for energy company shares

John Key’s loyalty scheme for energy company shares may have surprised even his Minister of Finance.

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4th August, 2012

Normally it’s bad form to start a column with a question, but in line with the Fair Trading Act, it’s as well to admit straight up that there is no satisfactory answer to it and get the darned thing out of the way: why on earth would John Key announce an unnecessary and unhelpful policy whose cost is utterly unknowable? And what did he have to slip into Bill English’s tea to get it past him? Although Key intends this new policy – a free share-reward for long-term holders of the floated state-energy companies – to make the unpopular floats less unpopular, it’s hard to resist the ...

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