A review of New Zealand's Crown Research Institutes (CRI) has proposed scrapping a requirement for them to pay a 9 percent equity to the Government.Finance Minister Bill English confirmed on TV One's Question and Answer programme the proposal had been mad
A review of New Zealand's Crown Research Institutes (CRI) has proposed scrapping a requirement for them to pay a 9 percent equity to the Government.
Finance Minister Bill English confirmed on TV One's Question and Answer programme the proposal had been made, when asked if he would consider giving up the equity premium of about $70 million a year.
A taskforce had been looking into how the most can be got out of the CRIs, which are Crown owned research companies and include Niwa that does water and atmospheric research and GNS Science Ltd. The review was looking at the purpose, governance and funding of CRIs which were established in 1992.
Mr English did not appear keen on the idea of removing the equity payment.
"It's been proposed as I understand it, but with my hat on as Finance Minister, I want to make sure every public entity is focusing on its financial liability, so we're not going to remove basic financial disciplines however that's expressed," Mr English said.
Mr English said Cabinet had not yet discussed the idea but he made it clear that it was "not going to take any soft options".
Mr English also told the programme that Energy Minister Gerry Brownlee was supportive of GNS, which researches earth sciences, getting more money so it could do exploration work.
