Press release reposted from It’s Our Future New Zealanders from all walks of life will come together on 10th September in a Day of Action that will affirm our democratic rights and support initiatives to build a fairer and more sustainable society. There will be rallies, marches, music and speeches, in family-friendly events that bring […]

Improving managerial responses to whistle-blowing in public and private sector organisations Public Good is pleased to work with a number of civil society organisations: HuiE!, Volunteering NZ, Community Networks Aotearoa to draw attention to and promote involvement in research by Victoria University into workplace whistle blowing policies. It is the biggest piece of research into […]

In 1841 Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote ‘The Conservative’. It’s an essay in rather archaic language about the wrong headedness of both progressive and conservative world views so it’s fairly even handed about the hazards of both inflated idealism and the deadliness of the status quo. However some of the statements about conservatism are prescient for […]

I presented my submission on the TPPA’s National Interest Analysis to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Select Committee and hung around afterwards to see who was next up. A few speakers later the Arbitrators and Mediators Institute of New Zealand made their presentation. Unlike the private individuals who had 10 minutes apiece or […]

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 […]