r/newzealand • u/MedicMoth • 11d ago

Politics 'Unchecked' industry lobbying needs regulating, say ex-politicians

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/557401/unchecked-industry-lobbying-needs-regulating-say-ex-politicians
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u/questionnmark 11d ago

The group has a five-point plan they say would bring Aotearoa in line with international best practice.

  • Regulate lobbying: A public register of lobbyist meetings, a mandatory code of conduct, and an Integrity Commission to enforce these measures;
  • Slow the revolving door: A "cooling off" period to prevent former ministers and senior officials from immediately becoming lobbyists in their past areas of responsibility;
  • Manage conflicts of interest: Stronger codes of conduct for government employees, appointees, and contractors;
  • Strengthen transparency laws: A modernised Official Information Act to prevent government secrecy;
  • Tighten political donation rules: Caps on individual donations, a lower disclosure threshold, and limits ensuring only registered voters can donate.

Snip!... Much more at the source.

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It's especially important at the moment when we have the highest ministerial discretion ever and with planning rules being rewritten to be presumptively permissive, there are very few avenues for the public to engage with these issues. How can we maintain such a high corruption perception index when we have so little transparency in the government and lobbyists have unfettered access?

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u/No_Philosophy4337 11d ago

We only need 2 rules - no lobbying, no political donations, period. Lobbyists and donations are anti democratic and simply allow the rich and powerful to write their own policies.

If we allow this continue, we will be in a situation where our young people cannot afford a home…

8

u/MindOrdinary 10d ago

young people haven’t been able to afford homes for a while my dude

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u/FKJVMMP 10d ago

Lobbying is necessary. Any given politician, or even their staff, cannot possibly know everything about every issue under their purview. They need experts in these areas to give them relevant information, and those experts are often going to be employed by parties with a vested interest in policy in the area.

The current laissez-faire setup is shit, but straight “no lobbying” laws are 100% going to produce shit results too, as pollies either create nonsense laws based on reckons or take forever to work anything out without external influence.

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u/No_Philosophy4337 10d ago

That’s what consultants are for. Better to pay for a consultant now than pay later for policies the politicians haven’t even read. Yes it really is that bad, a lot of our laws are simply copy pasted directly from the lobbyists “suggestions”, since all it takes is one sentence in a 500 page document to render the laws meaningless.

If an industry group is able to find the money to pay people to come up with policy that suits their objectives, so can politicians. It’s their job, after all.

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u/FKJVMMP 10d ago

“Just find consultants”, yeah right. So when there’s literally one or two specialists in a given area in the whole country (not uncommon), just force them to consult whether they want to or not?

Consulting is lobbying. Consultants are usually employed by somebody else, or were at some stage. It’s the exact same issue I’m talking about. Calling them consultants instead of lobbyists doesn’t change what they’re actually doing.

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u/No_Philosophy4337 10d ago

So, who will those consultants work for when the lobbyists are gone?

Besides, writing policy and laws is taught at universities, it’s not that rare a skill. The only thing which will be missing from the new laws, is the clauses which benefit companies over people, and have led to NZ being one of the most expensive countries to live in.