Posted 27th July 2001

ACC Stifles Opinion In Name Of Free Market
by Brian van Dam* (Photo shows Auckland City Mayor Christine Fletcher)

The Auckland City Council (ACC) Advocacy Committee voted today (25/6/01) by 6 votes to 3 not to make a submission on the Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement (HKFTA) proposed and being negotiated by the Labour government. Councillor Maire Leadbeater put forward a draft submission based on that made by the Christchurch City Council, which would have raised concerns with the government over the provisions of the draft HKFTA.

Concerns were raised in the draft submission to the HKFTA about the need for ongoing open discussion, availability of texts of the HKFTA andconsultation with local government, the possible effects of the HKFTA upon local body service contracting, governance and sovereignty, rules of origin under the HKFTA and environmental standards.

A small public forum was allowed, and three people addressed Councillors on the submission - all strongly in favour of Councillor Leadbeater's submission being adopted by the ACC. This did not sway right-wing councillors however, who were more interested in the catered snacks and drinks. At one point, Councillor Leadbeater had to ask the rest of the meeting to listen to her explanation, as the right-wing were engrossed in happily discussing other matters among themselves, and filling their teacups!

This level of attention was reflected by comments made by Councillor Astley, who observed that he saw no difficulty with the HKFTA in light of discussion this morning. Perhaps the astute councillor failed to notice that all the public submitters spoke against the HKFTA and in favour of council making a submission to government opposing it. Councillor Astley also cited an example of how the HKFTA would not affect local government decisions about awarding service contracts. He referred to the recent ACC tendering process for waste disposal services on Waiheke Island, and the fact that a local company won the contract after the ACC added an ``innovation'' criteria.

If the councillor is suggesting that the ACC or other local bodies can tinker with service contracts after the HKFTA is signed to add false criteria so that local companies can be awarded the contract when desired, he is likely to find his democratically elected personage dragged before an un-elected quasi-judicial panel of free trade gurus. Such panels will be agreed to under the HKFTA to determine whether any measure is an impediment to 'free trade', and they will certainly penalise the ACC if it used a measure like that above to award contracts locally.

On the other hand, perhaps Councillor Astley simply felt that it is enough to leave service provision to chance - after all, if a local company once manages to win one contract, so maybe the ACC will luck out, and have local companies put in the best contract on all matters that the community feels needs a local organisation handling it. This attitude certainly reflected the lack of comment by those councillors not willing to make a submission to government on the HKFTA. They made no reference to the Treaty of Waitangi, despite it being specifically referred to by one of the public speakers. How Maori are to be awarded contracts to provide services for their own people - one of the first steps towards the tino rangatiratanga guaranteed by the Treaty was not covered by council discussion. This despite recent move towards greater tino rangatiratanga being made by the Bay of Plenty District Council, and Manukau City Council, both of which were mentioned by public speakers.

The 'rules of origin' notion was addressed by Councillor Richard Northey one of the few councillors to actually speak on the issue. He felt the Labour government would almost certainly put in place more customs officers, and that customs could determine the source of overseas made goods and services. Quite how customs would be able to determine if a Hong Kong based tertiary education provider claiming that it's 'online university' courses were 'Hong Kong made', for example, when their courses may have been made by IT workers in mainland China, Bangladesh or India instead, he did not explain. Needless to say, he voted against making a submission on the HKFTA.

Perhaps this is the future that some of the more dull-witted councillors foresee when gazing attentively into their teacups - Auckland as an IT 'knowledge city of the future', with students attending tertiary education courses in classrooms with no lecturer, watching course materials on screen that were ``made in Hong Kong'' with a ``Hong Kong' voiceover that sounds distinctly Canadian, or Brazilian, or Pakistani, or

... Brian van Dam. ...

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