Why the Govt should not own companies

The SST has details of secret talks between Air NZ and Government Ministers over the proposal to co-operate rather than compete with Qantas.

It starkly shows the problems you have when the majority owner of a company is also the industry regulator. Instead of acting in the national interest (ie consumers and competition) it wants to act in the airline’s interest – just like when they tried to push through a semi-merger with Qantas.

As a general rule I favour private sector ownership, as you avoid this conflict between owner and regulator. I’d sell all but core monopolies such as Transpower (and even that could be done if structured in the right way).