[3] The referendum was backed by several prominent New Zealanders, including Dame Anne Salmond, who called it the "only just way" to determine whether asset sales are acceptable.

[4] On 30 September 2013, Prime Minister John Key announced that the referendum would be via postal ballot and would take place between 22 November and 13 December.

[5] John Key said that the Government intended to ignore the results of the referendum, as the 2011 general election gave them a mandate for the sell-off.

[7] The New Zealand Herald argued in an editorial that the Green Party used parliamentary funding to pay people to collect signatures, which while legal broke a long-standing convention about citizen initiated referendums.

[9] As a combined initiative, Labour and the Greens issued a protest T-shirt against asset sales in support of the referendum.

"[12] He had also gone on to call the referendum "an utter waste of money" as he had no intention of honouring its results, claiming the Government had been re-elected at the 2011 general election partially on the basis of the pending shares sell-off.