This paper formed part of my presentation to the Foreign Affairs and Trade Select Committee on the TPPA treaty consideration Yesterday it was revealed that fast-tracking the report date for the Select Committee considering the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) will have the effect of giving the Waitangi Tribunal three rather than seven weeks to produce […]

Today journalists from across the world, and co-ordinated through the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists,  have started to publish stories from the biggest ever leak of commercial information. All the prospects are that the flood of information will continue over the days and weeks to come. There are more than 11 million documents which “show […]

This is a summary of the TPPA submission I have sent tonight. It may not make any difference to the outcome in NZ but there will be a time when, having rehearsed all the arguments about the value of the public sector and of legislation in the public interest, they come to mean something again. […]

Trade Minister Todd McClay indicated that he would be willing to have the time period extended for TPPA NIA consideration. My email to the committee on 11 Feb and the response about the decision made on Thursday 3 March when the time has almost run out is below. This decision will mean that many significant […]

This is an article about the suitability of the 279 Page TPP National Impact Analysis (NIA) as a document to inform New Zealanders about the detail of the agreement. The TPPA is complex and multi-facetted but a well-structured, good faith approach would have provided a full report of its impacts intended for a wide public […]

Speakers at the EYE of the STORM conference in Wellington this week are echoing the call made by Wise Response in 2014. The Wise Response appeal was signed by more than 6000 people including academics, former senior politicians and ordinary New Zealanders. The appeal called for the government to assess the risks in five priority […]

The government says it is leading an international initiative of countries who are looking at how to cut carbon use by cutting fossil fuel subsidies. Friends of Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform includes a number of governments, commercial companies, including many from New Zealand, as well as some international environmental organisations*. The idea that there is no […]