Transparency International released its annual Corruption Perceptions Index yesterday, showing that Aotearoa had dropped two places to fourth (behind Denmark, Finland, and Singapore). And as Matt Nippert points out, it would have been worse, were it not for rising corruption elsewhere. TINZ's Anne Tolley (a former national Minister) expresses all our disquiet when she says:
"We used to be first in the world and we've just seen a continual drop down the ladder - about 10 percent in four years," Transparency International New Zealand chairperson Anne Tolley said.Hmmm. I wonder what has happened in the last four years? Could it have anything to do with a regime which has made policy decisions nakedly driven by industry lobbying, handed over billions of dollars to cronies, unlawfully appointed political cronies to public office, and is currently planning to campaign on being able to make even more corrupt decisions after the next election? (And that's not even getting into the whole LNG boondoggle)."It sort of feels like the wheels are coming off a bit and that's really dangerous for our democracy."
This is the most corrupt government Aotearoa has had in over a century. And it is openly viewed as such. The miracle is that we haven't fallen further.
We need to change this. We need to regulate lobbyists, take public sector appointments out of the hands of ministers so they can't be used to reward cronies, tighten political donation laws, and restore and extend transparency over our government. And the first step to doing that is to kick this corrupt dogshit regime out of office in November.
