NZ Last – Winston sells NZ out to the corporations with Regulatory Standards Bill

The great champion of economic nationalism and independence, Winston Peters, the politician who launched his Party raging against trans national corporate interests has finally degraded and buried whatever mana he once had by voting for the horrific Regulatory Standards Bill!

The Bill that 98.7% opposed this mutation during select committee, but Winston has gutlessly caved into David Seymour anyway.

Greenpeace are scathing…

Winston Peters and NZ First hand victory to ACT over corporate Bill of Rights 

Despite ACT failing to pass three earlier versions of the Regulatory Standards bill, they have succeeded passing it into law today, due to the backing of NZ First and the National Party.

“With one vote, Winston Peters has undermined his and NZ First’s entire legacy,” says Greenpeace campaigner Gen Toop. “Today, he helped pass a law that sells Aotearoa and its people out to foreign corporations to use and abuse.”

The new Regulatory Standards Act creates an unprecedented expectation that the Crown compensates corporations if environmental or public interest laws impact their property rights. It also creates a set of controversial “principles” which lawmakers must follow.

Greenpeace warns that this will open the door to multinational corporations demanding payouts for laws that protect Aotearoa’s drinking water, wildlife, and environment.

“The Regulatory Standards Act is a corporate bill of rights, designed to ensure that from now on the Government will be forced to serve corporate interests instead of people, nature, and Te Tiriti o Waitangi,” says Toop

“Clean drinking water, safe food and a liveable climate should never be made subservient to the so-called property rights of corporations.

“But, thanks to NZ First, from today multinational corporations will expect New Zealanders to hand over their taxpayer money whenever the government takes even the most basic steps to protect workers, people or the environment,” says Toop.

…The Regulatory Standards Bill puts property rights above human rights by creating a corporate stacked board who will vet all legislation to ensure it doesn’t hurt their profit margin.

It’s the most undemocratic legislation passed in NZs history, by enabling corporations to blacklist environmental laws and challenge any taxes.

Winston giving corporations this level of influence over our democratic process is a permanent stain on any honour he once had.

NZ First voters are a mix of redneck, anti-vaxxer, anti-Trans, Pro-Israel conspiracy theorists, so how they will square Winston handing over so much power to corporations will confuse them as much as your average eclipse.

NZ First is the very worst of NZ politics.

Winston has put NZ Last by selling out to corporate power.

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