State control
The Jones issue does raise some more fundamental issues around the stateowned enterprise and Crown Company model. The SOEs were designed as a half-way house ahead of privatisation, but when the steam went out of asset sales, they were left in limbo. The only way to politically handle them was to remove ministers from their commercial activities, but the fact is, the Government is still the owner, and ministers have quietly used their influence. The relationship is more difficult with the gentailers and Air NZ, where shareholding ministers own a majority stake. Until now, ministers have been hands off, but it is only a matter of time until a minister does not fancy staying silent. Of course, the two solutions — selling them off or buying them back — are politically or fiscally impossible.