Integrity Talking Points

25 February 2011

The Public Governance Committee of the OECD last week published Principles for Transparency and Integrity in Lobbying. These provide decision makers with directions and guidance to foster transparency and integrity in lobbying. The Committee recommends that member states establish rules that take the Principles into ccount and that they disseminate the Principles to legislators, the private sector and to lobbying constitutencies. The proposal is that the OECD will report progress in giving effect to the Principles in three years and periodically thereafter.

In New Zealand lobbying is not recognised as a challenge to the integrity of government or to the effectiveness of the democratic process. Ministers are accessible by all interest groups, effective processes of parliamentary scrutiny are in place and official information is generally available. Reliance on these safeguards may be naive in light of experience in almost every other comparable jurisdiction. A survey in 2010 by OECD disclosed that most member states had concerns about the threat to public trust posed by improper access to decision-makers.  A growing number of jurisdictions have rigorous disclosure requirements and constraints on revolving doors that facilitate the move of public sector leaders into big business. Revolving doors can be seen as reward for the favourable use of influence.

The OECD requirement to report on measures taken to regulate lobbying may influence the New Zealand perspective on the value of disclosing who may be influencing decision makers.

The OECD sees transparent arrangements as a solution.

In South Carolina the newly elected State treasurer now publishes his electronic diary on the web so that all constituents can see who he meets and the nature of those meetings.

http://acts.oecd.org/Instruments/ShowInstrumentView.aspx?InstrumentID=256&Lang=en&Book=False

http://schotline.us/2011/02/03/transparency-in-action-treasurers-request-to-move-budget-control-board-meetings-to-larger-venue-approved/

http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2011/02/24/carney-dodges-lobbying-questions/

24 February 2011

A Parliamentary report of the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee about New Zealand’s

relations with South Pacific countries into the way New Zealand can support economic development

suggests that there have been “disappointing results” from the substantial aid provided by NZ. The Committee found that conditions have deteriorated in the 20 years since the last inquiry.

There was no unanimity among the political parties. The Government members consider that NZ’s aid policy has contributed to “bloated… bureaucracies” and that funding should be redirected. The Labour Party members do not accept that Pacific governments are the problem. The Greens want an overarching commitment to reducing poverty, and the Maori party wants aid to support the establishment of traditional structures rather than attempting to replicate governance processes in Australia and New Zealand.

The poor state of South Pacific governments is evident in the Transparency International Corruption

Perceptions Index.

62nd Samoa 4.1

73rd Vanuatu 3.6

91st Kiribati 3.2

101st Tonga 3.0

110th Solomon Islands 2.8

Although the pro-democracy movement in Tonga – which may have contributed to major destruction in Nuku’alofa 18

months ago – is not referred to by the media when commenting on recent developments in North

Africa, it is interesting that Tonga has a corruption rating falling between Egypt (3.1) and Algeria (2.9)

both which have experienced civil unrest this month.

http://www.johnhayes.co.nz/archives/12-14%202010%20Final.pdf

http://www.transparency.org/policy_research/surveys_indices/cpi