New Zealand¹s culture, environment and
lifestyle are threatened by the just-revealed demands from its trading partners
under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) negotiations, Green
Party Co-leader Rod Donald warned today.
“The scale and degree of the so-called ‘requests’
from other WTO countries is breathtaking,” said Rod Donald. “They reach into
every facet of our life and would - if agreed -destroy this country’s unique
character by turning it into a globalized village tailor-made for corporate
guinea pigs.
Even a cursory reading of the request
document published by MFAT yesterday indicates that wholesale acquiescence
would:
·
Allow foreign firms and individuals
unrestricted access to New Zealand property and businesses by scrapping by the
Overseas Investment Commission;
· Remove the Kiwishare ownership and directorship restrictions on Telecom;
·
Destroy the opportunity to make films
about New Zealanders, by removing the NZ Film Commission¹s ability to fund
NZ-made films in preference to overseas films;
· Silence the voice of Maori on the airwaves by removing special funding provisions for Maori broadcasting;
·
Lose control of our water supplies by
opening up ownership and control to international firms;
·
Allow overseas firms unrestricted
access to oil exploration and development.
“The Treaty implications, alone, are
mind-boggling,” said Rod Donald. “This
Government certainly has no mandate to approve such far-reaching changes to the
New Zealand way of life. Worryingly, the document admits New Zealand already
has one of the most liberalized trade-in-service regimes in the world.”
“Incredibly, vested business interests
have had a year to lobby the Government on New Zealand¹s requests of other
countries, yet the public - the people whose lives will be permanently and profoundly
affected by any changes - will have just 25 days to make a submission on
whether they should succumb to the demands of other countries.”
This is simply ridiculous. There is no time
for proper public consultation and no provision for Parliamentary scrutiny
before the WTO’s March 31st deadline. Therefore the Government must
reject that deadline.”
Rod Donald, MP