When is an asset strategically important? When it contains “sensitive” land, according to Dr Michael Cullen.

This is apparently why shareholders and pension fund managers with an interest in Auckland International Airport lost a great deal of money when Cullen and his myopic pals blocked a minority investment by the Canadian pension fund.

Now, a Chinese-owned company wants to pay around $785 million for the Vector-owned Wellington electricity network. Since this asset exists only “above ground”, and therefore only in the mind of God, it’s not a strategic asset according to the Cullen doctrine.

This means that any intellectual property, or perhaps a software developer or a telephone company such as NZ Telecom, or an airline, is perfectly acceptable as a take-over target. It merely needs to be unconnected with “sensitive” land. This also means that Wellington’s electricity network will probably soon be owned by Chinese communists, who know a great money-maker when they see it.

Of course, it could be argued that Auckland International Airport is not strategically important because it depends on air traffic and all aircraft bound for Auckland are not physically connected to sensitive ground until they land. This fits in with the principle that all take-offs are free, and you only pay for landings.

If airlines chose to touch down in Christchurch instead, Auckland airport would cease to have any relevance or be sensitive. But Christchurch airport might then become the focus for those interested in controlling sensitive land and carting it overseas…

From Cullen, we get no clues about the meaning of “sensitive land”, but it might have something to do with Treaty settlements, because the Labour-led Government has taken a similarly leaden-footed approach to handing back Hawke’s Bay airport to the people who use it, and who want to improve it. Some tribal folk think they have an historical claim on the airport land – even though it was beneath the sea until the 1931 earthquake.

You could argue that the electricity network shortly to be sold to China is physical infrastructure that supplies power to Wellington consumers who, because they often own the land on which they live, might feel that the power supply is strategically important. Some of the most important Wellington consumers are those busybodies who inhabit Parliament. Their power supply will shortly be owned and operated by Chinese communists. Is that strategic, or what?

Introducing $785 million worth of foreign cash to invest in crucial infrastructure (or pay off debt and directors’ bonuses) would be helpful to our rickety economy – and we should be happy to export the operating profits, so long as the new owners introduce a culture that improves customer service, keeps prices down and doesn’t cut the supply to followers of Falun Gong or our vital MPs. It’s much better than inviting open-ended, high interest-bearing foreign loans to support unearned and uncontrolled consumer spending.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with having foreign investment involved with infrastructure, so long as the State takes a strategically important role in ruling how foreigners treat Kiwi consumers. The Government’s record in this respect is not good, and there is little prospect that it will pull the plug on this dodgy deal.