What if it’s actually worse with Shane Jones and Casey Costello than we think it is?

Here’s a problem.

The OECD warned us recently that corporate and vested interests have a level of influence over legislation that compromises our democracy…

According to an OECD report released today, New Zealand needs to tame its corporate lobbying industry. The Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development has ranked New Zealand as the fourth-worst country among its 38 members when it comes to regulating vested interests that try to influence policymaking.

The OCED report for this country, Product Market Regulation indicators: How does New Zealand compare?, says that New Zealand is one of the few advanced economies that still doesn’t “have adequate rules that ensure transparency and accountability in the interactions between public officials and interest groups”. They warn that this absence threatens to produce an “unlevel playing field” in which big businesses can dominate and monopolise New Zealand industries, reducing productivity.

The report evaluates all the regulations in economies such as New Zealand to highlight where regulation, or a lack of it, leads to reduced economic competition. The OECD performs this process every five years, using about 1000 questions relating to each country’s regulatory framework. Overall, the quality of New Zealand’s regulations is deemed to be very close to the average in the OECD—the country ranks 20 out of the 38 organisation members.

Regarding lobbying regulations, the OECD measures each country on a scale between 0 to 6, in which 0 means “more transparent” and 6 means “less transparent”. Countries at the top of the scale, like France and Ireland, have excellent lobbying scores – both on 0.86 out of 6, and even the US is near the top, with a very good score of 1.71. New Zealand is at the other end with a score of 4.93 out of 6. The only OECD countries faring worse are Slovakia (5.14), Luxemburg (5.57) and Turkey (5.57).

You can see how New Zealand fares in the regulation of lobbying in the chart below, taken from the report – the red bar is for New Zealand, the green bar is the OECD average:

…we are an open sewer of corporate and industry interests connected with the donor class who are now simply getting the laws written for their interest, not the common good.

It begs the question what if it’s actually worse with Shane Jones and Casey Costello than we think it is?

Let me explain.

Currently Politicians have to register their interests and and because they’ve all been in there for so long, those interests are blunted and worn smooth, but because NZF weren’t in power for a term that means their MPs could sign private consultancies and work for industry with the understanding that if they were then elected they would pursue the interests of those clients with the understanding that when they leave they can come back to those consultancies.

That the naked venal nature of NZF politicians and their lobbying consultancies ensure policy is in their interest as well as the interest of their donor.

Casey Costello was a Tobacco lobbyist through her time with the Taxpayer’s Union and I would be very surprised if Shane Jones and Winston didn’t both held private consultancies while they were out of power.

Costello ruthlessly pursues the interests of the Tobacco Industry while Shane is about to gain the power of Muldoon on Meth with the Fast Track powers that allow him to grant every wish his donor class want.

They are ensuring their donor class interests are being implanted WHILE the OECD is warning us that the current system allows for Corporations to buy their own laws.

We refuse to listen because that forces questions about who we voted for.

Better to still be angry at Jacinda for having the temerity to save 20 000 lives than to question voting for a system that helps corporations collectively exploit us.