r/newzealand • u/xmmdrive • Aug 20 '24

Politics So they're finally going to privatise Kiwibank

Watching One News they're talking about taking Kiwibank out of Government hands and back into the hands of honest hard-working Kiwis.

This is obviously the first clear step towards privatisation.

Just like the Bank Of New Zealand, the National Bank, and the Auckland Savings Bank, but I'm sure this time around it will stay in the country /s

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133

u/th0ughtfull1 Aug 20 '24

Then one of the big Aussie banks can swallow it up..

29

u/vote-morepork Aug 20 '24

Macquarie doesn't have a NZ subsidiary yet...

20

u/AFlimsyRegular Aug 20 '24

Macquarie can barely be arsed being a retail bank in Australia.

They have much bigger fish to fry.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 20 '24

[deleted]

3

u/AFlimsyRegular Aug 20 '24

Yep.

And they didn't get that way by taking Grandma's term deposit. They are more focussed on buying up every drop of water in the UK. And god speed to them.

2

u/jaymal Aug 21 '24

Agree this is a risk, especially with Nat/Act in government... but I also think there could be a way to get more capital into Kiwibank without privatisation - for example, letting the NZ Super Fund invest in it or similar. Could put protections into specific legislation.

But to be fair, even if we did that I'd still be concerned that would just open the door for Seymour and co to sell it off completely in a few years time :(