Friday, September 23, 2011



Rejecting transparency?

The Open Government Partnership is an international initiative to promote greater transparency, accountability and participation in government. It was formally launched in New York on Tuesday, with 46 countries signing on to its declaration of principles.

Strangely, New Zealand wasn't one of them. This isn't an oversight; we've apparently indicated that we won't be joining.

You'd think that transparency, accountability, and participation are values our government would want to promote, especially given our support for democracy and human rights. But apparently not. Internationally, we officially don't give a damn about these things.

Which is I guess what happens when you make Murray McCully Minister of Foreign Affairs.