Garth George: Pulling strings for political puppets

Do you sometimes wonder, as I do, who is really running this country? Whether it is the Government, irrespective of party make-up, or big business and high finance?

There seems to be growing evidence that our democratically elected representatives are no more than puppets whose strings are pulled this way and that by amoral and avaricious businessmen and financiers.

And not just in this country. It seems that throughout the Western world politicians seem only too quick to bow to the blandishments and blackmail of multinational businessmen and bankers, who have subtly divested themselves of any sort of governmental oversight or regulation.

That was, after all, what caused the collapse of vast financial houses in 2009 which threw the Western world's economies into confusion that is still felt today.

A prime example of what I'm talking about came in a report in a Sunday newspaper last weekend which revealed that Justice Minister Judith Collins met liquor industry lobbyists repeatedly in the weeks before the Government's controversial u-turn on measures to restrict sales of alcopops.

The report said documents released under the Official Information Act disclosed the extent of the pressure exerted by the liquor industry, including a joint letter to Prime Minister John Key warning him his Government was about to "make a very serious and highly public mistake" and hinted that legal action was possible if the crackdown went ahead.

Back in August the Government backed off from its plan to ban the sale from off-licences of ready-to-drink grog with more than 6 per cent alcohol and instead gave the booze barons the right to draw up their own RTD code of conduct.

Now, if there was ever an example of letting the fox into the henhouse, then that has to be it. The booze industry, irrespective of what it might tell us, is totally unconcerned about what damage its products might do, particularly to children, and will never police itself in any way that might lose sales and profits.

But it gets worse. In early June, according to the Sunday report, four companies that make RTDs - Bacardi Lion, Beam Global, Brown-Forman and Diageo Australia - told the Government that if the ban went ahead new products were likely to be introduced, including flavoured wine in casks with a higher alcohol content than RTDs. These would "be able to be sold in supermarkets as any other beer or wine product".

If that isn't blatant blackmail, then I don't know what is. But there's more.

In May the chief executive of the Distilled Spirits Association of NZ, Thomas Chin, wrote to Ms Collins saying the RTD proposals potentially contravened the Trans-Tasman Mutual Recognition Agreement (TTMRA) which guarantees access for Australian-sourced goods and their sale in New Zealand. The ban, Mr Chin said, would constitute a "barrier to trade".

And there's more. About the same time Independent Liquor chief Julian Davidson sent a five-page submission to the Treasury, which was sent on to Ms Collins, which claimed that the proposed reforms would "create an immediate breach" of the TTMRA.

And no doubt implicit in all that is, put simply, "bring in this law and we'll take you to court".

But Ms Collins' excuse to overrule the RTD ban came when she announced the backdown: "Frankly, I think we can stop treating everyone as though they're fools and can't make decisions for themselves. It was a bit too much taking away people's responsibility. About 80 per cent of New Zealanders drink extremely responsibly."

Surely even Ms Collins can understand that it's not the 80 per cent that are causing the violent and often-fatal disasters attributed to RTDs; that it's the Government's duty to protect the 20 per cent from themselves - and the rest of us from them.

garth.george@hotmail.com.