Are Cabinet Ministers misleading the House?
Claims by three Cabinet Ministers that they never received copies of
the recent expose on what the GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services)
means for New Zealand have been questioned by the group that produced the
report.
In written
questions from the Green Party, the Ministers were asked if they had received a
copy of the report, Serving Whose
Interests? and if so, what advice they had received about the concerns it
raises for their portfolios. Judith
Tizard, Rick Barker and Annette King said they had not received it.
"I personally addressed and posted copies to all ministers."
Leigh Cookson, Director of the Action, Research and Education Network of
Aotearoa (ARENA) said.
“We
even have a letter from the office of Associate Minister of Culture Judith
Tizard, that says ‘I have placed your correspondence
before the Minister for her information’ and ‘Thank you for keeping the
Minister informed’,” Cookson says.
"Either the report hasn’t been passed on to Ministers or they
haven’t take a blind bit of notice. This is especially galling for the
country's culture community who have been pressing Judith Tizard and the Prime
Minister to change the GATS commitments that currently prevent the introduction
of compulsory local content quotas in broadcasting.
"One wonders whether mail that Ministers find challenging is
simply consigned by staff to the nearest rubbish bin, or whether the Ministers
are so frightened by questions about the GATS, that they don't bother checking
the accuracy of what they're saying.
"This is not just short-changing Parliament. It is selling short
the country," Cookson says.
"The ARENA report was no flimsy pamphlet. It was an academically researched, high-quality document that
ARENA produced at very considerable expense.
Copies were distributed to all Members of Parliament."
Cookson says ARENA wanted to be sure that all MPs, "and especially
every Minister", were aware of the implications for New Zealand of the
GATS negotiations. Saying they had not
received the report relieves them from reading it, as well as answering the
questions it raises.
“This is hardly some peripheral issue," Cookson says. "The
GATS negotiations will decide who controls New Zealand’s essential services
such as education, health and the environment. Will it be New Zealand citizens
through our Parliament, or will it be transnational corporations courtesy of
the World Trade Organization?”
“It’s time Cabinet took their responsibility more seriously and began
demanding real answers to the real questions about the GATS which ARENA and
others are raising," Leigh Cookson says.
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