Annette Presley: The face of theft

Everyone wonders why people keep voting for thieving governments, but at the same time everyone wants a piece of someone else.

Moochers put their hands out for Welfare for Families, and justify it with a chuckle; students put their hands out for grants and interest-free loans, and justify their mooching by invoking 'the public good'; nosy neighbours claim the right to dictate what can and can't go on over their fence, and give impetus to envy-ridden laws like the RMA; and moochers and petty chisellers like Annette Bloody Presley (left) celebrate the just-announced nationalisation of a portion of NZ's largest company, and justify the theft by calling it 'unbundling.'

Let's call it what it is. It's theft. It's nationalisation -- just as I said right here back in February:

What "local loop unbundling" really means is this: nationalising Telecom's telephone lines because other telecommunications companies can't be arsed building their own, and the RMA makes it all but impossible to do so if the will were there in any case -- which it isn't. In a word, it is theft.

As Rodney Hide said today following Cunliffe's announcement of Telecom's 'unbundling':

This decision is not about allowing competition, it's about government forcing a private company to open their network to competitors. Labour has absolutely no respect for private property rights. Instead of creating an alternative network, a group of companies have pressured Ministers to let them leech off Telecom's lines... This sends a chilling message to any company wishing to invest in infrastructure - Government will regulate and control you, unless you do what politicians say.

The nationalisation of Telecom's lines has been long-signalled, and will no doubt be widely celebrated by all those who want to get their hands on something that isn't theirs, and don't care about the power they give government by granting their support. All government wants is cheerleaders for its meddling. All the cheearleaders want is their own chance at someone else wealth. The moochers and the looters need each other to survive. 'The goverment that robs Peter to pay Paul will always get the enthusiastic support of Paul' is a truism that is too frequently forgotten; it is entirely appropriate to invoke it here this evening.

Take Presley for instance. Instead of building up her own network or investing in Telecom shares in order to have a legitimate say in theirs, Annette Presley and others like her have been given the chance at something they haven't earned by a Government that doesn't care whose property they steal to do it.

You may disagree with how the assets that becameTelecom were originally sold, but sold they were, and today's Telecom bears only the slightest resemblance to the small, frail, flightless former SOE that first came blinking into the light with the sale of parts of the government's creaking Post and Telegraph department. That sale created a number of property rights that this present Government -- with the enthusiastic support of moochers like Presley -- has now declared it intends to strip.

Larry Williams put to her tonight on his Drivetime show Rodney Hide's perfectly correct point that this represents a violation of Telecom's property rights. Presley's response: "Bullshit." Turns out she wouldn't know a property right from a prostitute, and apparently wouldn't care who acts as her pimp.

What opinion have I formed of Annette Presley then? A publicity-seeker and a receiver of stolen goods. A cheerleader for nationalisation; a poster tart for theft. How might she feel if someone broke into her home some day and 'unbundled' everything she's worked for? Shame on her.

UPDATE 1: LibertyScott has an earlier post on Annette Presley, the entrepreneurial second-hander. I should stress, she's being picked on here because she's representative of so many New Zealanders who complain about government on the one hand but are happy to mooch when it suits them; who complain about growth in government, but who want to get the government's gun out on their behalf when it suits them. DPF is another example, and I'm very heartened to see commenters taking him to task for his typical Tory inconsistency. As one commenter puts it:

When is a Socialist government not a Socialist government? When David Farrar gets cheaper broadband out of them. I agree wholeheartedly with the comments above, this is confiscation of privately owned property no matter how you look at it.

It sure is. Trust a National Socialist to embrace it.

UPDATE 2: Telecom shares drop 7% in Australia, following unbundling ... - TCM.Net:

Although the New Zealand Exchange closed before the media conference took place, trading continued in Telecom shares on the Australian exchange. Tony Connolly from First NZ Capital says Telecom took quite a hit, closing down 33 cents, about seven percent, at A$4.43.

He expects Telecom shares to be sharply weaker tomorrow...

No kidding.

UPDATE 3: "Unbundling is theft," agree Business Roundtable chief executive Roger Kerr, Federated Farmers telecommunications spokesman Hugh Ritchie, National Party communications and IT spokesman Maurice Williamson (who would have thunk it!), and around the blogs LibertyScott, the Whig, Michael Ellis and Lindsay Mitchell. Cheerleaders for theft abound: this Herald article summarises the celebrations of those whose hands the preceeds of this theft will fall into. I'll let you hunt out all the other disgraceful apologists yourself. And Computer World has a summary of the package, and what happens next.

LINKS: Government to unbundle Telecom's local loop - NBR
Rodney Slates Labour's Disgraceful Destruction of Telecom's Property Rights - New Zeal
Stealing Telecom's property with weasel words - Peter Cresswell
The entrepreneurial second-hander - LibertyScott
Getting out the smoking gun - Peter Cresswell
Telecom decision 'bad for business, bad for farmers' - NZ Herald
Rocky time for Telecom's shares says National - Newstalk ZB
Theft of property rights to benefit overseas multinational - LibertyScott
Unbundling is theft - The Whig
Don't steal - the Government hates competitors - Michael Ellis
It's the means you've got to watch - Lindsay Mitchell
Internet rivals break out champagne - NZ Herald
Unbundle - Computer World
Unbundling timeline: what happens next - Computer World

TAGS: Property_Rights, Politics, History, New Zealand, Politics-NZ, Politics-National