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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