Gordon Campbell Key’s abuse of secrecy over Iraq & The TPP 30 Apr 2015
Gordon Campbell
Related articles
- NZ consumers grow more upbeat, may resume spending Business
- All Whites claim historic point Sport
- Minister launches SmartGate in Wellington Travel
- New Zealand hosts Pacific fisheries meeting News
- Prime Minister to travel to South Africa News
- Brownlee Leads Aviation Mission To Shanghai News
- New Zealand-Russia begin FTA scoping discussions News
- NZ looking at all avenues on whaling issue News
- NZ migration bolstered by British invasion Migration
- Sludge Report #192: The Naked Budget Columns
For the past week or so we’ve been hearing a lot about the child-like side of our Prime Minister. So I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised that if you put him on the mat in Dubai, he will say the darndest things. Here’s what happened. During his post-Gallipoli trade mission to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, the Prime Minister saw fit to babble away to a reporter from the Gulf News about the current whereabouts of the NZ troop deployment to Iraq. Some of our troops, it seems, are currently in the UAE.
This is the same sort of information Key has repeatedly refused to disclose to the New Zealand media, allegedly on security grounds. Yet how can it possibly be safer to identify the location of our troops while they’re in the Middle East and on the very doorstep of Islamic State – and yet somehow more dangerous to reveal even their departure date here at home in New Zealand?
The only sane answer is that the ‘security’ of the troops has never been the actual concern. What Key was trying to prevent was any political protest at their departure i.e the secrecy was about safeguarding his government’s political interests, not the security of the troops. To the point where Key seems blithely willing to reveal to Islamic State that our troops are travelling to the battlefield, via the UAE – and are having a substantial stopover there, en route to Iraq. If an ordinary member of the public revealed to the world what Key has just done, they would quite possibly be at risk of prosecution under our anti-terrorism laws. His rationale is classic :
In an interview with a local Dubai paper, Key confirmed some of the 143 personnel joining the fight against Islamic State are in the Gulf State but when questioned over his failure to disclose that to New Zealand media said that was because he considered it was "not newsworthy”…..
There is a word for countries where the public gets told only what their rulers deem to be newsworthy. Child-like isn’t it.
TPP and secrecy
Iraq is not the only arena of government policy where secrecy has proved to be a useful political tool. The Trans Pacific Partnership deal is now inching towards its Armageddon moment – ie, a vote in Congress on whether President Barack Obama will be given the ‘fast track’ authority he needs to clinch the deal without significant Congressional amendment. Typical. The details of the TPP trade pact have been hidden from the public… and now, this alleged Great Leap Forward is being insulated from meaningful democratic scrutiny. If Obama gets ‘fast track’ authority, there will be only a head count in the Great Hall of The People – I mean, Congress.
Even so, Americans – and their members of Congress - are still being given a level of access to the TPP texts that we wretched New Zealanders are being denied by our secretive Prime Minister. On Monday, Obama gave a long interview to the Wall St Journal that included this remarkable passage :
OBAMA : This issue of secrecy, by the way, is – is particularly of concern to me because the way we have set this up, the text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement – where it is right now – it’s not closed, it’s not finished; we’re negotiating with 11 countries – but the text of what we have right now has been on file in Congress for weeks. Members of Congress have been able to go in there and take a look at it.
Now, what you’ll hear critics say is, but it’s not public yet.
WSJ : : Right.
OBAMA: Well, the way that the trade authority that is coming out of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Finance Committee and that will soon be voted on provides is that, if and when we complete an actual agreement, we’ve closed the text with these other countries, then for 60 days before I sign the agreement we have to post this up on the Web, the public will see it, every member of Congress will see it.
It will be debated for two months before I even sign the agreement. Once I sign the agreement, it’s going to take several months before Congress votes on the agreement. So there are going to be many months in which people will be able to look at every comma and period and semicolon in this deal. “‘
So lets get that straight. What Obama told the WSJ is that (a) right now, every member of Congress has full access to the TPP text as it has been negotiated thus far (b) the finalised texts will become ‘closed’ for other countries, but will still be open to debate in Congress (c) there will be a two month debate in Congress before Obama can sign the TPP and (d) following the presidential approval, Congress will get a further few months before it votes on the agreement and (e) before that happens, the public will have full access to the text of the document.
To state the bleedingly obvious : John Key is not giving New Zealanders anything like the same level of access to the current TPP text. Our MPs currently do not have access to the texts negotiated thus far. Moreover, the Beehive will be committing New Zealand to this document before there has been any full public disclosure of its contents, much less any meaningful debate. The New Zealand parliamentary debate and vote will be merely a rubberstamp for a fait accompli. Judging by what Obama told the WSJ, American law-makers already enjoy far more access and the American public will have far greater opportunity to scrutinise the TPP, before signing occurs.
Key needs to be far more open. If he can, he needs to use his fabled salesman skills to try and sell this deal, not pass it by stealth in the dead of night. Merely asserting that the TPP will benefit the country overall, is not good enough. Even a US business press that routinely supports the TPP has been challenging Obama of late to (a) identify the winners and losers from the TPP and (b) explain how he intends to compensate the losers.
Earlier this week for instance, Bloomberg News issued a stinging rejoinder to the pro-TPP economist Gregory Mankiw.
For one thing, Bloomberg columnist Noah Smith said, many observers are worried that the TPP is actually trade-restrictive in its IP provisions, and in that respect is not a free trade document at all. Moreover, Smith argued, the benefits of free trade can be very, very unequally shared, while the damage it does can be felt very widely :
…If the richest 1 percent of Americans gain $1 billion from a trade agreement and the other 99 percent lose $900 million, then [classic pro- free trade] theory says the country benefited overall. That outcome is perfectly consistent with Econ 101.
Most pro-free-trade economists, if you confront them with this fact, will say that this problem can be solved if we use re-distributive taxes to compensate the losers. This ignores that we often don’t know who the winners and losers are from any particular trade deal -- this is why you can’t buy insurance against the possibility of losing your job to a trade agreement. This also ignores that the tax system wasn't set up to carry out this compensation. And on top of that, many pro-free-trade economists, Mankiw included, are almost always opposed to tax increases.
In other words, Mankiw is giving the public a pro-trade argument that, even on its own merits, might be bogus. Econ 101 says that it’s possible that free trade might hurt the majority of Americans, and yet Mankiw doesn't seem to think the public needs to hear that fact.
Neither does John Key.
A Cure For The PM ?
Fittingly, there is a classic childrens book – Bread and Jam For Frances, by Russell Hoban – that holds out some hope for a possible solution to the hair issues the PM has been having.
Frances you see, loves bread and jam so much that she neglects her egg and vegetables. Bread and jam is just too tantalising for Frances to resist. To cure her, her parents finally resort to offering her bread and jam at all meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner – to make her sick of it, and free her from her addiction. And it works!
With that in mind, it could be helpful if dozens of pony-tailed New Zealanders – women and men alike – chose to descend on the Prime Minister at his future public engagements. Only by prolonged exposure to an excess of pony-tails can we hope to break his habit and render pony-tails safe for everyone, once again. In the meantime, ‘Pirate Jenny’ by Kurt Weill is arguably the ultimate fantasy about the revenge of the powerless. Jenny the chambermaid is really pissed off at how she has been treated. Over the course of her song, she dreams of masking the rich and powerful pay in blood for showing disrespect to workers in the hospitality industry. This live version from 1964 may be a little on the melodramatic side, but Nina Simone never did believe in doing anything by halves. ( https://youtu.be/V7awW5nrDHk )
ENDS
News
Hilary Timmins' Award-Winning UK Documentary Series To Inspire NZ Students
29 Jun 2020 Education
Dream Catchers, produced and directed by Hilary Timmins, celebrates the success stories of more than thirty inspirational New... more
New Zealand reaffirms support for Flight MH17 judicial process
7 Mar 2020 News
Ahead of the start of the criminal trial in the Netherlands on 9 March, Foreign Minister Winston Peters has reaffirmed the need to... more
Business
NZ Government's Economic package to fight COVID-19
17 Mar 2020 Business News
The Coalition Government has launched the most significant peace-time economic plan in modern New Zealand history to cushion the... more
NZ Government announces aviation relief package
19 Mar 2020 Business News
Transport Minister Phil Twyford today outlined the first tranche of the $600 million aviation sector relief package announced earlier... more
Living
Diversity was Key at New Zealand Trade Tasting in London
6 Jun 2022 Food & Wine
New Zealand Winegrowers Annual Trade Tasting was recently held in London, on Wednesday 4 May, in Lindley Hall.
It was the first... more
Kiwi author stuns Behind the Butterfly Gate
12 Jan 2022 Arts
Hidden behind the Butterfly Gate is where the secret has been kept for 76 years...
New Zealand writer Merryn Corcoran’s... more
Property
Fairer rules for tenants and landlords
17 Nov 2019 Property
17 NOVEMBER 2019
The Government has delivered on its promise to the over one million New Zealanders who now rent to make it fairer... more
New Zealand Government will not implement a Capital Gains Tax
17 Apr 2019 Property
The Coalition Government will not proceed with the Tax Working Group’s recommendation for a capital gains tax, Jacinda Ardern... more
Migration
Boosting border security with electronic travel authority – now over 500,000 issued
19 Nov 2019 Migration
19 NOVEMBER 2019
We’ve improved border security with the NZeTA, New Zealand Electronic Travel Authority, which helps us to... more
Christchurch reinstated as refugee settlement location
18 Aug 2018 Migration
18 AUGUST 2018
HON IAIN LEES-GALLOWAY
The announcement that Christchurch can once again be a settlement location for refugees... more
Travel
Gallipoli Anzac Day services cancelled
19 Mar 2020 Travel & Tourism
The New Zealand and Australian Governments have announced this year’s joint Anzac Day services at Gallipoli will be cancelled... more
New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas
19 Mar 2020 Travel & Tourism
New Zealanders advised not to travel overseas
more
Sport
The Skipper's Diary: Sir Richard Hadlee honouring his father and NZ's Forty-Niners
27 Oct 2019 Cricket
NZNewsUK London Editor Charlotte Everett spoke to Sir Richard Hadlee about why he’s chosen to publish his father’s... more
PREVIEW: All Blacks v England semi-final
26 Oct 2019 Rugby
The two most convincing quarterfinals winners are set to square off in a semifinal showdown for the ages when the All Blacks meet old... more
Columns
Gordon Campbell on the Gareth Morgan crusade
11 Nov 2016 Opinion
Gordon Campbell on the Gareth Morgan crusade
First published on Werewolf
The ghastly likes of Marine Le Pen in France and Geert ... more
Gordon Campbell on the US election outcome
10 Nov 2016 Opinion
Column - Gordon Campbell
Gordon Campbell on the US election outcome
Well um.. on the bright side, there (probably)... more
Kiwi Success
Congratulations to Loder Cup winner
26 Sep 2018 People
25 SEPTEMBER 2018
The Loder Cup, one of New Zealand’s oldest conservation awards, has been awarded to Robert McGowan for 2018... more
Appointments to New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO
16 Aug 2018 Appointments
16 AUGUST 2018Appointments to New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO
HON JENNY SALESA
Associate Education Minister Jenny Salesa is... more
Recruitment
Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
14 Aug 2018 Recruitment
14 AUGUST 2018Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
HON CHRIS HIPKINS
Prime Minister
The... more
Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
22 Aug 2018 Recruitment
14 AUGUST 2018Historic pay equity settlement for education support workers
RT HON JACINDA ARDERN
HON CHRIS HIPKINS
Prime Minister
The... more