OUSA wants to buy SOE shares

The ODT report:

The generation gap is now a gulf – a gulf of dismay.

Local Grey Power president Jo Millar has been told the Otago University Students’ Association (OUSA) would not march with senior citizens protesting government asset sales.

Good. OUSA should get involved on issues of tertiary education and student welfare. They should not just join in to every Labour Party campaign there is.

But, when contacted by The Star, Mr Edgar said he had ‘‘no interest whatsoever” in the protest.

OUSA would look to invest in shares when the assets were put up for sale, Mr Edgar said.

‘‘We’d do it to keep some lights on for studying students and to keep them [the energy companies] New Zealand-owned,” he said.

Mr Edgar said he and other OUSA members were meeting bank advisers today to discuss investment options. He did not know how much money OUSA had available to invest.

Heh. No wonder Grey Power are upset. I do recall when Contact Energy was sold, many of those interviewed who purchased shares were students. I recall this as I was with the Minister of Education as he watched them talk of how they used their student loans to purchase shares. I don’t think he saw them as essential living costs!

Talking of OUSA, I should point out that the Cumberland ghost story which I blogged about, was actually a story in Critic, which got reported without attribution by the ODT. I don’t know why media are so reluctant to attribute where a story comes from. I can understand it if they are commercial competitors, but otherwise it should be a regular practice.