The wonderful neo-Marxist site watchbogaotearoa sees a huge conspiracy involving the IFIs (international financial institutions), PECs (private equity corporations), a SB (strangled bureaucracy), the NZCID, Education Forum, US Coalition of Services Industries, The European Services Forum, the credit rating agencies, the international agreements (eg the GATS) and, horror of horror, the lobbyists, conspiring to encourage New Zealand to ............. (don't mention the word - privatise). Who will be able to sleep tonight?
We quote in particular the following paragraph
The Lobbyists
Not only do these vested interests make their own cases and bring pressures to bear, with the ultimate threat being to leave New Zealand and take their money with them, but they organise their own lobby groups which try to provide a façade of advocating in the public interest rather than the narrow commercial benefit which is all too obvious when a corporation advocates an asset sale or commercial contract. The lobby groups are both New Zealand specific and international.There are the well known business lobby groups such as the Business Roundtable, the local Chambers of Commerce, the American Chamber of Commerce, and Business New Zealand. The Business Roundtable is of course notorious for its advocacy of privatisation as the universal cure, but one group also worth noting is the Wellington Chamber of Commerce which has appointed Charles Finny, a former senior Trade Negotiator with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), as its Chief Executive Officer. Former MFAT trade officials have shown up in a variety of business lobby groups, including the Trade Liberalisation Network, the Asia New Zealand Foundation, the APEC (Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation) Business Advisory Council, and of course the National Party. Finny makes a practice of loudly applauding any new trade agreements but in particular urging the Government to go further in opening New Zealand to the services transnationals in those agreements. As we will see, this is an important part of cementing existing privatisations and expanding the effect of them.
Where is Trevor Louden when we need him???? He reckons most of those mentioned are involved in a completely different conspiracy. Isn't the Wellington Chamber of Commerce a communist front organisation??
Good night readers, sleep if you can....
