New Zealand - country for sale

From 2012

PM puts New Zealand up for sale

NBR,

23 May, 2012

Prime Minister John Key has suggested New Zealand would be a good option for anyone in the market to buy a country.

At a lunch hosted by the trans-Tasman business circle at Auckland's Langham hotel today, he asked the 800-strong audience: "If someone wanted to buy a country, why wouldn't they buy New Zealand?"

When questioned by reporters afterwards about the country suddenly being on the market, Mr Key continued his sales pitch.

"We produce what the world wants, we have an abundance of natural resources, we've got good rainfall, a smart population.

"We're in the fastest growing part of the world, we're not indebted as a country from the Government point of view," he says, seemingly ignoring the glaring $8 billion deficit outlined in the budget yesterday.

He did not signal an asking price for New Zealand.