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If you are going to compare Norway with NZ you should start at the begining of the sovereign wealth fund . Both Norway and NZ realised the need for electricity generation and neither had money to achieve it so New Zealand chose to tax the population to pay for the endless dam construction by the Ministry of works. Norway chose to find a major construction company that was willing to fund the building of the power stations and lines if they kept all revenue for 20 years but after that the power stations and infrastructure would be handed back to the government. Now when the 20 years were up and the handover occurred the Norwegian government did a deal that the company could continue running the system but the government would take a 50% holding in the resulting company and governments share of the profits would be put into a sovereign wealth fund for the benefit of the population.
When the North sea oil was found by the UK they chose to give Norway the field that laid from the mid point between the 2 countries and Norway used the same rules for ownership and extraction so they ended up with half the company that extracted the oil plus the royalties. Contrast this with NZ. NZ paid for the search for oil after the oil companies pulled out then once it was found they floated the company and sold it off to Fletchers. They then started selling off the power stations but were stopped after Contact by a Maori iwi threatening the sale with the Treaty of Waitangi and chasing away the scavengers that were into making their billions on the combined work of the complete country over thirty years. Of course 15 years later they managed to selloff half of what was left. Noticeably no sovereign wealth fund or any inclination of doing anything for the benefit of the public, except ever higher power prices.
Norway doesnt have one of the major issues we have, te early arrivers. Wouldnt say they are a perfect model but one hell of a lot better than our dumbass mob
Nunnas you are so correct. 18 years ago I was President of a substantial northern Bay of Plenty town (which sat a little south of Waihi), Rotary Club. The Chief Geologist of the Waihi Gold Mine which was then owned by Newmont Mining Corporation spoke to the Club one evening.
He claimed that New Zealand as a whole, held considerably more mineral wealth per square kilometer than Australia, but that there was no way this country would extract it or benefit from it because of the opposition from the Greenies and Early Settlers.
New Zealand fucked all the unrealised opportunities still in the ground!
This what you get when politicians are involved. Useless twats! Scum!
The only thing done right was think BIG!!!
Norway had the incredibly good fortune not to be overrun by workshy, militant Pommie unionists nor their fourth grade tradesmen.
We were handicapped out of the race.