Is corporate governance democracy's end in NZ?

Thursday, 1 April 2010, 3:59 pm
Column: Scoop Feedback

Does corporate governance spell the end of democracy in New Zealand?

I have been observing the emergence of an Auckland Supercity with a growing disquiet. It appears to me as the strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde when every effort is made to accommodate the interests of big business at the expense of democratic representation. Could this be another stake in the ground for NZ Incorporated?

The gravity of the situation was brought home when I recalled a question my own democratically elected mayor had for our local MP, Jacqui Dean, when giving a talk in Cromwell last year. The mayor of the Central Otago district, Dr Malcolm Macpherson, asked Ms Dean whether the Auckland governance model would make its way south. Although our honourable parliamentarians are not renowned for their unequivocal responses, I interpreted her reply as a resounding "no".

Yet closer to home for me is evidence of a similar scenario playing out in Canterbury (http://blog.greens.org.nz/2010/03/19/wake-up-cantabrians-your-democracy-is-at-stake/), unfortunately left to the Greens for comment and thus capturing the disinterest of 95% of the population. And we have evidence of Mr Hide's own intent to see the model rolled out nationally (http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/AK0908/S00169.htm).

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for smaller government, but that's never the end result is it? Big business continues its domination over control of our assets and government continues to grow. And we pay for it! I thought the merger between corporate and government interests was called fascism, but our grandfathers helped put an end to that 65 years ago, right?

We all know what happened to the electricity sector in this country under a corporate model. Are we to expect the same outcome with our water too?

It's an interesting aside (or perhaps not so much a sideshow as the main event) that similar scenarios are being acted out all around the globe, albeit on a much larger scale. (To coin a hermetic phrase so dear to our Freemasonry friends, "as above, so below".) For example, the Council on Foreign Relations has a stated ambition of achieving a North American Union with Canada, the USA and Mexico by 2010. Who wins? Maybe the Mexicans, albeit temporarily. Certainly the corporations. It will be interesting to see what event or events the CFR conjures up in the next few months in order to manifest this highly unpopular agenda.

For a home-grown example of the CFR, we need not look too much further than the Trans Tasman Business Circle and its chair, Don Mackinnon. Why was I not surprised when, hot on the heals of Alan Bollard's comment that New Zealand can never catch up with Australia, Don Mackinnon waltzes up to the media with the news that a merger with Australia is inevitable? Is this what we're being prepared for?

We hear it all the time: the Government has a very clear economic plan to increase our productivity, grow our exports and start narrowing the income gap with our trading partners. It's nothing but sound bites for the lapdog media, isn't it? It could be the words of any Finance Minister, although we ought to attribute these particular words to Bill English.

And the reality? Centralised governance with commissioners rather than elected officials at the helm, and big business as the only true stakeholders.

But unlike elected officials, corporations know no boundaries and harbour no loyalties.

They're certainly not accountable to the people.

ENDS

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