Bill English stealthy? Maybe we should take away his megaphone to make his plans more open

The word “stealth” takes on new meaning in the lexicons of the lefties.

Listen to their leader, Andrew Little, for an example of how they use it:

Plans to offload state houses to social housing providers is “an asset sale by stealth,” the Labour Party says.

The deluded Andy is banging on about an expression of interest from an Australian company, Horizon Homes, to buy surplus state housing stock.

He is claiming the Government has given no reason why the houses should be sold offshore,

But having surplus stock and wanting to find a buyer seems reason enough if you are not too fussy about where the buyers live – so long as their money is good (which perhaps rules out the Greeks for now).

What else is bugging dear Andy?

“Once these properties are bought by overseas investors they will be lost from New Zealand forever.

 “This is an asset sale by stealth,” Little said.

Watching these houses after their sale to the Aussies – assuming it goes ahead – should provide us with lots of fun.

Andy would have us believe they will vanish from whereever they are located in this country and pop up somewhere else.

This will be a wonderful spectacle because Horizon Homes could buy between 400-500 homes if it fits the Government’s criteria.

Alf will expect this conjuring trick to involve a certain amount of stealth.

But there has been no stealth in letting Andy know what’s going on.

Alf learned about it in a newspaper report: 

The Government is not ruling out selling a stake in the country’s state housing portfolio to Australian interests.

Finance Minister Bill English said it was possible state houses could be sold to an Australian charity as the government looks to divest some of its housing stock to third parties.

Speaking on TV3s The Nation, English said Australians would be able to buy the State houses if they were registered as community housing providers.

Let’s go back over that: English was speaking to a TV3 audience.

This is a very curious way to be doing something with stealth.

Here’s what else we learn from the newspaper:

The Government has announced plans to sell a limited number of State houses to community housing providers to take on vulnerable tenants.

Announced?

Yep. That’s the word.

The Government’s stealth is the sort you exercise while telling the world what you are doing, it seems.

But there’s more:

Labour’s housing spokesman Phil Twyford said the Government was effectively privatising State housing.

“Bill English has yet to provide a scrap of evidence that Australian companies in cahoots with property developers will do a better job of delivering state housing.”

Isn’t he a clever boy, then?

Why it took the prospect of a sale to an Aussie to get him excited about a privatisation us a mystery.