When this country is in recession and Kiwi families are doing it bloody tough, I cannot bear to stand by and see rich and powerful private interests – whom I will not name at this point and this post is not about SCF – rorting the rules and using their clubs and networks to finesse processes.
It makes Godzone look like “the coldest banana republic in the world”.
For goodness sake interests associated with the Natural Dairy Crafar farms bid (potentially with Nat links) reportedly gave $200,000 to the National Party while the Natural Dairy application was still before the OIO and while National has a ministerial policy review underway.
National should IMMEDIATELY reject that bid – otherwise what is left to separate this from complete corruption? Brown envelopes? Is David Garrett really the only sick or crooked puppy on the Govt benches?
Was it OK for the OIO-overseeing Minister of Finance to lease his (trust’s) house to the govt for a staggering ministerial rent, or accept hours of free TV for his “Plain English” ads? Isn’t it time we Kiwis stood up and demanded that the tories do sweat the small stuff like the rest of us? Isn’t it time John key held SOMEONE to account for SOMETHING rather than smile, wave and make excuses?
The Fendalton and Queen St methods are different from the Crafar one but they are even more dangerous and subversive: very polite circles of influence in the clubs and boardrooms - with massive flows of funds through anonymous trusts that violate the intent of the Electoral Finance Act. Prestigious law firms and lobbyists. This is up with the worst sort of influence peddling I saw in Washington D.C. - One dollar one vote: permanent plutocracy unless we fight back.
Beyond political donations, look at the ability of the rich and powerful to get their way while the poor and middle struggle: $2 billion a year of tax avoidance through LAQCs and trusts that National in government has refused to touch. Half the top 100 welathiest NZers are still not on the top tax rate!
This post is not about SCF, but researching that issue has opened my eyes to the complexity of the company and accounting structures in daily use around the markets. One prominent international investment broker told me he tells his clients never to invest in NZ other than through an ASIC-regulated (Australian) vehicle, because our market is a wild west.
Well what is the point of getting our savings rate up (and asking hard working families to go without consumtion) if the investment vehicles we need to get the money to our struggling firms are being milked and siphoned by fees and sweet deals to the cronies in the markets? Why would any sane Kiwi sweat 80 hours a week to build a real business here? Where will our kids choose to live?
We are talking the need for a full scale root and branch reform. For example, is the Trustee model not a fiction? Issuers want tame trustees; trustees want clients. How do you prevent a race to the bottom? I will wager now the FMA Bill will not do the job. We have BIG problems here folks.
It might have been cool to point the finger at Labour when the champers was flowing during the bubble hype days; but corporate influence peddling is about as attractive as a bucket of sick in the middle of a recession.
There is a real risk of systemic market failure in the NZ financial markets. They remind me of telecommunications markets in the 1990s – time for a big cleanup.
It is not right and not fair on the silent majority who play by the rules and who are getting absolutely screwed.
It will only get worse until we have a Govt with the guts to stand up to it. The smiling millionaire from Bankers Trust is hardly likely to do that!
