Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa
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The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) believes that the independence of most countries is being eroded away. This erosion has taken place because most of the world's economy is now owned and controlled by a relatively small number of huge transnational corporations (TNCs).
This is the lead article in Peace Researcher 44, to be published this month.
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The Government’s proposed partial privatisation of Mighty River Power, Meridian and Genesis Energy has focused attention on the ownership of our State-owned electricity generation companies.
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The 25th anniversary of NZ's Nuclear Free law is a worthy cause for celebration for what was, and is, a fantastic achievement.
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The endlessly fascinating Crafar Farms soap opera focuses attention once again on the political hot potato of foreign ownership of New Zealand land.
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CHRISTCHURCH — The announcement that Christchurch wind turbine manufacturer Windflow Technology has signed a ten year licensing agreement with General Dynamics' subsidiary SATCOM is eyebrow-raising in itself.
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The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) declares its solidarity with the Canadian members of the United Steelworkers Union who are currently visiting New Zealand (Invercargill today; Wellington tomorrow) to gain support for their struggle against contracting out by their employer, Rio Tinto Alcan.
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Justice Miller’s decision to order a review of the decision to approve the sale of the Crafar Farms to the appropriately named Milk NZ, owned by Shanghai Pengxin of China, is a welcome outbreak of sanity in this whole sorry saga.
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News that the Big Five Australian-owned banks made a combined NZ profit of $3 billion in 2011 means only one thing – they’re making too much money out of us.
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Speaking at the opening of Coca Cola Amatil’s Christchurch bottling plant, group managing director Terry Davis called on the Government to consider “incentives” for food and beverage manufacturers (Press, 19/1/12; “Coca-Cola calls for incentives”).
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CANTERBURY — The Government announced this week that it has no plans to help Ansvar Insurance customers left in the lurch by their insurer’s December 31st exit from the New Zealand insurance market.
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There was never any doubt that National was going to win the 2011 election; the only question was by how much.
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The eight finalists for the 2011 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand are: Adidas, Newmont Waihi Gold, Oceania, New Zealand Aluminium Smelters Ltd/Rio Tinto Alcan NZ Ltd, Sajo Oyang Corporation, Sky City, Telecom and Westpac.
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CHRISTCHURCH — The revelation that all of Christchurch’s publicly-owned trading assets could be in danger of being sold due to a “legal loophole” in the law establishing the new State authority to run the city whilst it is rebuilt after the earthquakes should set alarm bells ringing loudly.
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The six finalists for the 2010 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand are (in alphabetical order): BUPA, Imperial Tobacco, Telecom, Vodafone, Warner Brothers and Westpac.
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People from all around New Zealand will be converging on Blenheim and the super-secret Waihopai satellite interception spybase, in Marlborough, on the weekend of January 21-23.
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The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) congratulates both the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) and the Government for having refused the application of Natural Dairy to buy the Crafar Farms.
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The six finalists for the 2010 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand are (in alphabetical order): BUPA, Imperial Tobacco, Telecom, Vodafone, Warner Brothers and Westpac.
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Luis Jalandoni and his wife Coni Ledesma (see below for contact and itinerary details) are in Christchurch now, at the start of a national speaking tour (they leave Christchurch on the morning of Wednesday 27th for Blenheim and to view the Waihopai spybase that afternoon).
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The Campaign Against Foreign Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) congratulates Labour for seeing the light and announcing a policy that recognises the glaringly obvious fact that unrestricted foreign “investment” (meaning takeover or economic recolonisation) is a disaster and for starting to take some painfully modest steps towards rectifying that (should it be returned to office).
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Maurice Williamson, the Minister of Land Information, is obviously having none of this PC nonsense being spouted by his boss.
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The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) congratulates the newly formed Save The Farms group, which has called for an immediate moratorium on farm sales to foreigners “so we can have a national debate”.
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Tell Us Something We Don’t Know.
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Sanity has briefly broken out with the Government’s announcement that the Crown will not, indeed cannot, appeal the acquittal of the Waihopai Domebusters.
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The sale of Shell NZ’s downstream assets to a joint venture of NZ Superannuation and Infratil has been hailed as returning this chunk of vital infrastructure to New Zealand ownership.
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The most unbelievably naïve reaction to the news that a mysterious Chinese company is hoping to buy up to $1.5 billion worth of dairy farms came from Federated Farmers, which said that this is an “unintended consequence” of the NZ/China Free Trade Agreement.
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Marlborough District Councillor Gerald Hope is quoted in today’s Press (“Spy-base verdict irks locals”, http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3474157/Waihopai-spy-base-verdict-irks-locals): “If I was a juror I would have wanted a conviction…”.
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The Anti-Bases Campaign congratulates the Waihopai spy base Domebusters – Adrian Leason, Peter Murnane and Sam Land (and we’re proud to have all three of them as ABC members) on their entirely deserved acquittal on all charges arising from their April 2008 deflation of one of the top secret base’s satellite dish domes.
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Talks started in Melbourne today for the US, Australia, Peru and Vietnam to join an expanded Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (TPP, currently comprising NZ, Chile, Brunei, and Singapore, known as the P4 Agreement), with November 2011, when the US hosts APEC, as the target to seal the deal.
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From late night on Thursday March 11 the full Judges’ Report will be available at www.cafca.org.nz, follow the Roger Award links from the Homepage.
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Helen Clark is currently back in the country to bask in the glow of the warm fuzzies.
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The Waihopai spybase was dragged into the public spotlight on April 30, 2008 when three Ploughshares peace activists, Sam Land, Adrian Leason and Peter Murnane, penetrated its high security and deflated one of the two domes concealing its satellite dishes from the NZ public.
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“Power Junky”, CAFCA’s famous historic Comalco comic (1977; updated 1982; text by Pete Lusk, drawing by Ron Currie) is now available online.
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Hillary Clinton’s visit this weekend will highlight the fact that negotiations will commence in March for the US to join an expanded Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (currently comprising NZ, Chile, Brunei, and Singapore, commonly known as the P4 Agreement), with 2011 as the target to seal the deal.
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BLENHEIM — People from all around New Zealand will be converging on Blenheim and the super-secret Waihopai satellite interception spybase, in Marlborough, on the weekend of January 22-24.
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There really is a Santa Claus.
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The nine finalists for the 2009 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand are (in alphabetical order): ANZ, BNZ, Infratil, Newmont, Rio Tinto Aluminium NZ, Rymans, Telecom, Transpacific and Westpac.
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New Zealanders who kid themselves that “we” stand to gain from a Free Trade Agreement with the US would be wise to reflect on the rueful words of Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain’s Ambassador to the US in the runup to the US/UK invasion of Iraq.
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“The Informant”, starring Matt Damon, opens in cinemas today.
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The announcement that the US is ready to start negotiations in 2010 to join an expanded Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (currently comprising NZ, Chile, Brunei, and Singapore, commonly known as the P4 Agreement), with 2011 as the target to seal the deal, confirms that it will be used as the backdoor means to secure a US/NZ Free Trade Agreement.
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“One of New Zealand's biggest vegetable processors, Cedenco failed under the weight of high debts and problems with its shareholding and "governance", with unspecified problems relating to its ultimate owners in the United States.
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Nominations are now open for the 2009 Roger Award for the Worst TransnationalCorporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand, which is organised the CampaignAgainst Foreign Control of Aotearoa and GATT Watchdog.
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The Government has announced a new Investment Protocol for Australian investors in NZ, under CER.
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The Australian-owned banks have been congratulating themselves on what a good recession they’ve been having and how it was all down to their prudence in not getting involved in any exotic financial transactions.
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Statistics New Zealand has quietly announced that $8.9 billion of net foreign investment was withdrawn from NZ in the last financial year.
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Nearly 5,000% Increase In Threshold In Just Ten Years.
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Bill English has released the first of the recommendations of the review of the Government’s overseas investment regime (any changes to the actual Overseas Investment Act have yet to be announced).
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BLENHEIM — “It (the Waihopai spybase’s new dome, being installed today) is inflated to two PSI (pounds per square inch) above atmospheric pressure and designed to protect the satellite (sic – dish) from the weather not hide the direction that the satellite (sic – dish) is pointed, as has been popularly believed”.
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In light of IRD’s recent victory over BNZ’s structured financing transactions (described by IRD as a “rort” and by the judge as having “no commercial rationale, logic or purpose”), it is worth investigating whether the Australian-owned banks are still engaging in them, or have done so more recently than the period covered by IRD’s court actions against all of them.
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In a major addition to the Watchdog Website, 11 historic issues have been uploaded to it.
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CHRISTCHURCH — Not so many years ago, when the Christchurch City Council was justly proud of the title The Peoples Republic of Christchurch bestowed on it by the Business Round Table, it adopted a number of progressive policies on foreign investment and free trade agreements.
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MARLBOROUGH — The Waihopai spybase was dragged into the public spotlight in April 2008 when three Ploughshares peace activists penetrated its high security and deflated one of the two domes concealing its satellite dishes from the NZ public.
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CANTERBURY — You dont need me to tell you that the world is in a once in a century economic crisis right now.
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MARLBOROUGH — The Anti-Bases Campaign (ABC), which has been campaigning for over 20 years for the closure of the Waihopai spybase, has a keen interest in the alleged ”oversight” of the agency which operates it, namely the NZ Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).
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Thursday’s Budget promises to be a humdinger, maybe in the finest traditions of Ruth Richardson’s infamous “bash the poor” 1991 one.
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This is a story that was a very long time in the making.
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First it was Reserve Bank Governor, Alan Bollard, urging the four big Australian-owned banks to play the game, be good chaps, don’t let the side down, and other similar clichés.
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ANZ, GIVE THEM BACK THEIR MONEY! The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) fully supports the Frozen Funds Group in its campaign (which now includes pickets of ANZ branches) to get this Australian–owned bank to repay hapless small NZ investors whose money has been frozen due to the collapse of two investment funds run by its subsidiary ING NZ Ltd.
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It is one year today since the Ploughshares peace activists deflated one of the two domes at the top secret Waihopai spybase (and, in the process, severely deflated the supposed top security of that base).
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The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force and the Bureau of Immigration arrested on Thursday night a foreigner and six retired Philippine Navy soldiers suspected to be involved in a mutiny in 2003, authorities said on Friday.
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Don’t take our word for it.
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The old witch doctors of the OECD have issued another one of their repeat prescriptions for New Zealand and once again it’s based on that discredited old maxim – the operation was a success but the patient died.
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Our esteemed ex-industrial officer, Paul Corliss, has just been “gifted” most of his SIS files.
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News that the Government plans to urgently review the 2005 Overseas Investment Act, with a view to further liberalising it, comes as no surprise.
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Finalists: ANZ; BAT (British American Tobacco NZ); Contact Energy; GlaxoSmithKline; Infratil; McDonalds; Rio Tinto Aluminium NZ (nominated under its former name of Comalco); Telecom.
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AUCKLAND — The 2008 Winner(s) will be announced on Monday March 2nd; 7.30 p.m.
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AUCKLAND CITY — The identity of the worst transnational corporation operating in New Zealand in 2008 will be revealed on March 2 at an event in Auckland.
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The eight finalists for the 2008 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand are (in alphabetical order): ANZ, BAT (British American Tobacco NZ), Contact Energy, GlaxoSmithKline, Infratil, McDonalds, Rio Tinto Aluminium NZ (nominated under its former, better known, name of Comalco) and Telecom.
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The Campaign Against Foreign of Aotearoa (CAFCA) congratulates the Government for buying the St James Station for the explicit purpose of keeping it from falling into foreign ownership.
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The proposed expansion of the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership (NZ, Chile, Brunei, and Singapore, commonly known as the P4 Agreement) to include investment and financial services, and to add the US to its membership, was bad enough.
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade recently announced the opening of negotiations with Singapore, Chile and Brunei to extend a two year old trade and investment agreement (the grandly named Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership - often known as the P4) into investment and financial services.
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The Campaign Agaisnt Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) receives the monthly Decisions (i.e.approvals, plus the very rare refusals) from the Overseas Investment Office.
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We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when told that Bill English had claimed that our unassuming little anti-privatisation postcards are part of a “covert campaign” by Labour and the Greens and apparently on a par with the infamous Exclusive Brethren campaign in the 2005 election.
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Nominations are now open for the 2008 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
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BLUFF — Here we go again.
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The address is www.watchblogaotearoa.blogspot.com
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While its commendable that John Key wants everybody to have access to broadband, his proposed method of going about it leaves a lot to be desired.
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