The results of the asset sales referendum show that New Zealanders oppose the sale of state-owned assets by a margin of more than two to one.
The mediocre referendum turnout shows that New Zealanders aren’t really that worried about asset sales.
I was surprised at how many people voted. I thought the turnout would be poor, given the time of year, and because National has already said it will ignore the result. But 44% is a great result.
Less than half the people registered to vote even bothered to vote. It’s a massive failure, and the whole thing has been a waste of taxpayer money. Clearly people just don’t care enough about the issue.
The resounding referendum result shows that National has no mandate to sell any state-owned assets.
The low turnout shows that National still has a mandate for its partial asset sales programme.
National must listen to the people, and abandon plans to sell Genesis Energy.
The people had a chance to tell the government how they felt about asset sales, but most of them couldn’t be bothered to do so. It’s business as usual for John Key’s government.
The whole exercise has been a waste of money.
You can’t put a price on democracy.
This is a slap in the face for National.
This is a slap in the face for Labour and the Greens.
Imperator Fish 
It is very brave of Mr Key to say that 66.2% of New Zealanders are so unimportant that they are to be ignored. That is nearly 900,000 who must feel peeved.
It is very brave of Mr Cunliffe to say that 66.2% of 44% of New Zealand registered voters are so important that they are to be obeyed. That is more than 900,000 who must feel peeved.
More than two thirds, or 2million voters did not vote for National at the last Election. Must leave Mr Key peeved that so few wanted his current Government let alone not support his Asset Sales.I do not think Mr Key is wise to slap the faces of 900,000 NZ voters.
Mr Key by refusing to take notice of this poll, is giving a slap in the face to democracy. How many people did he turn off of voting by saying their vote would not matter before this referendum even took place. Is he saying that most council votes are also not legitimate because the turnout in eligible voters for most of those elections has been very low also. The chart I saw showed that the turnout in eligible voters for this referendum was actually up in most areas from previous voting. That in my opinion gives the No vote a boost in its standing as a result that should be listened to!
The reason most people probasbly didn’t vote was because they knew full well that it was going to be ignored. National stated before the last election that it was going to sell and still got voted in, so they did have a mandate so to speak. So you can have all the referendums you like, till you vote them out in a general election, all this crap about not having a mandate is rubbish.
The amount of people that did vote against it compared to how many voted is rubbish too!
Read your own stats.
The comments here prompt me to ponder that major philosophical conundrum: when does “Fail!” become “Epic Fail!”?