Ross Wilson Dominion Post Column, April 16 2007

The well known international financier George Soros has warned that “[p]erhaps the greatest threat to freedom and democracy in the world today comes from the formation of unholy alliances between government and business.”

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DominionPost Business Column
By Ross Wilson, president, Council of Trade Unions
16 April 2007

The well known international financier George Soros has warned that “[p]erhaps the greatest threat to freedom and democracy in the world today comes from the formation of unholy alliances between government and business.”
 
Nicky Hager’s well-researched and unchallenged analysis of the National Party funding and strategies, The Hollow Men, provides clear evidence of an urgent need to reform our election funding laws to, in the words of the 1986 Royal Commission on the Electoral System, “limit the potential for corruption by interests with access to substantial funds”.

And I think most New Zealanders, including business people, agree there is potential for undue influence when most election donations in New Zealand come from big business and right-wing millionaires. 

That concern would be heightened by the revelation in The Hollow Men that those anonymous donors are the same extremists who promoted, and benefited hugely from, radical political changes during the 1980s and 1990s, and that two of the million-dollar-plus donors sought direct control over the National Party campaign and particular policies in Government  as a condition of the “donations”.  If you add to that the Exclusive Brethren spending $1.2 million on attack advertising against the Labour and Green parties there is a clear case for law reform.

I understand from media reports that the reforms being discussed by the Government include caps on anonymous donations to political parties, directly  or through trusts, of $5000,  and $60,000 on third party campaign spending, with State funding of political parties also a possibility.

The trade union movement, like the rest of the community, has only begun to consider and debate these important issues, but the indications are that union members would accept the need for this sort of reform. We are organising public forums to promote open debate.

The National Party and Exclusive Brethren last week turned their attack towards unions and proposed that not only should these funding caps apply to union donations to political parties, but  communications between union leadership and union members should be included in the third party campaign category.

The suggestion that unions make large donations to political parties is a myth. While it is true that several unions are affiliated to the Labour Party the total of union campaign donations to political parties in any election year pale into insignificance when compared with corporate donations.

Nevertheless I accept the need for union political party donations, and third party campaigning, to be considered as part of any reform. But I believe that controlling communications by union leaders with union members would be an unreasonable restraint.

Unions are completely open about our political activity. Together, the CTU unions are an organization of more than 350,000 working New Zealanders who come together in unions to promote our common objectives. And some of those objectives can only be achieved politically.

The CTU takes pride in the fact that we act as an effective voice for working people on a broad range of issues, and that we have through our political and campaigning activity achieved  significant political influence, and tangible benefits for all working New Zealanders and their families. Four weeks annual leave, which came into effect on 1 April, is the latest such gain in a long list of achievements under the Labour led Governments of the past several years.

As a union movement we develop our own policies and priorities on all the important issues facing us as a country and endeavour to engage in rational public debate rather than rhetoric. We work with any political party which is willing to assist us to advance our policy programme and we encourage our union members and their families to be active politically.

We want an active democracy, not only because we believe that democracy is rule by the people and not rule by corporate funders, but because history shows that the rights to free speech and to organise in unions, although  guaranteed by international law, are among the first to go when democracy is subverted or overthrown.

And we want that democratic activity to be by New Zealanders for New Zealanders. It shouldn’t be possible for Australian insurance companies to secretly pay million dollar donations to a New Zealand political party with the objective of securing privatisation of ACC for their private profit. 

At the very least the identity of all political donors and the amounts donated should be publicly available. As the great US Supreme Court Justice Brandeis said “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases; sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants and electric light the most efficient policeman.”

And it is difficult to see why the campaigns of political parties should be privately funded, with the corresponding advantage (and risk of undue influence) to parties backed by corporates and millionaires. Serious consideration should be given to State funding as many other Western democracies do.

We face difficult challenges in developing our small country in a globalised economy where major corporates dominate. I believe most New Zealanders want to face those challenges and determine our own future through genuinely democratic processes.  As Bruce Jesson said in his book “Only Their Purpose is Mad”:

“….definite social, democratic and national goals……would be an essential element in defining the role of the nation within the global marketplace. But, as is often the case, the process of formulating those goals might be as important as the goals themselves. A democratic process whose purpose was to provide a national perspective would in itself help restore New Zealand’s democratic processes.”(p220)

So let’s ensure that our election, and other democratic processes, enable us all to genuinely participate, while at the same time exposing and limiting the opportunity for those “unholy alliances”.