Big Tobacco, Big Fishing and Big Dairy rule NZ while we bicker about phones in school – this is how dumb our debate is

Example after example after example of how Big Business interests use their influence and uncompetitive market advantages to continually push small businesses out of contention.

Here’s Big Fishing watering down any regulation to stop their plunder…

Nothing transformational about Fishing Industry Plan

Greenpeace is slamming the government’s Fisheries Industry Transformation Plan released today, calling it anything but transformational, as it allows destructive bottom trawling to continue.

“Bottom trawling is the worst of the worst methods of fishing. It destroys seafloor habitats and indiscriminately kills ocean life, and this new plan does nothing meaningful to stop the destruction”, says Greenpeace oceans campaigner Ellie Hooper.

“Despite its name there is very little that is transformative about this plan with no timeline to phase out destructive bottom trawling and an over reliance on mythical ‘techno fixes’ to address the impact commercial fishing has on ocean life.

“We see this plan as a missed opportunity to protect the ocean from the ravages of bottom trawling and truly transform commercial fishing in Aotearoa.

“The science is clear – bottom trawling destroys marine habitats and life. The public knows this and are fully onside with a ban. Almost 80% of people surveyed want a ban on bottom trawling and that same sentiment shined through in submissions.”

The vast majority of submitters on the Plan – almost all of the 2,790 email submitters – called for a time-bound transition away from bottom trawling – yet the final plan has ignored these voices. 

“It’s very clear who has been listened to in this process, and who hasn’t. The government has ensured the commercial fishing industry can continue kicking the can down the road, avoiding meaningful changes and continuing ocean destruction. Everyone else who wants to see the ocean protected and full of life – has been ignored.” 

… here’s Big Tobacco watering down any regulation of tobacco while stoking Dairy crime fear while ignoring that it’s their addictive product fuelling that Dairy crime…

The ‘corner dairy campaign’ quietly backed by big tobacco

A campaign to “save our stores” from a smokefree initiative looks like a grassroots effort. The truth is more complicated.

Since 1 August, ads have started showing up on Facebook urging people to support a petition to “save our stores”.

The ads, which lead to a website called Save Our Stores, ask users to sign a petition to repeal the Smokefree 2025 Act. The act includes a measure to reduce the number of stores selling full strength tobacco from 6000 nationwide to 600 by July 2024.

At first glance, the campaign appears to be an initiative from dairy owners. Under a headline of “who we are” on the website’s “about us” page, a dairy owner said to be from Lower Hutt is featured: “My name is Bhavesh. I’m a dairy owner in Lower Hutt. I’ve been serving customers for 17 years.”

However, smaller type at the bottom of the page says the website is “proudly supported” by tobacco companies BAT (British American Tobacco) New Zealand and Imperial Brands. The website’s privacy policy says the website is “provided” by the tobacco companies.

The website encourages dairy owners to get involved by printing out posters to display in their stores. These include messages in bold type warning: “This dairy is under threat of closure” with a QR code which leads to the website.

…and here’s Big Dairy dragging down the entire economy because their interests have been relentlessly championed…

National are the Political Party of Corporate Dairy Farmers and the Corporate Dairy Farmers  who followed John Key’s ‘All our Cows in one Beijing paddock’ strategy’ have ended up becoming indebted to our Chinese Economic Overlords.

While our Chinese Economic Overlords build their own mega Dairy Farms that will utterly undermine our dependent industry.

…22 000 Bosses are given the power to import migrant workers under new visa rules, yet of that number only 2 have had exploitation scams ended and that’s because there is no State policing the current regulations we have!

We see this time and time and time again, State regulators who are supposedly policing the under regulated markets with barely enough staff to look into anything at all!

Max Rashbrooke highlighted the horror of NZs under regulated market…

The bad news is that, to investigate 200,000-300,000 terrible rentals, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) has employed a frontline inspectorate numbering … 37. Each inspector will have to check somewhere between 5000 and 8000 rentals.

ACTs call to dismantle Capitalism’s police tells you all you need to know about the deregulated hellscape a National/ACT monstrosity would birth into this world!

We see these unfair uncompetitive structures form constantly in NZ, from the Supermarket Duopoly to the Drainage Duopoly to the Banking Oligopoly, the Left are too frightened to regulate Capitalism while the Right are promising to rip down every regulation.

Our small and medium sized businesses need a capitalism that rules by making the market fair to compete in, the Commerce Commission needs to get off its chuff and start demanding regulation so that the life-force of our entrepreneurialism, small and medium business, can effectively compete against the old boy networks.

I’m not looking for Socialism, I’m looking for basic regulated capitalism.

Meanwhile, instead of demanding real debate this election, our country is currently  debating phones in schools.

This is how dumb our political debate has become.

 

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