Political antics only underline the loss of power

DURING the past 10 years we have watched the political process become increasingly diminished by the antics of its players.

The trivial pursuits of name-calling and blaming each other for failures to address social and economic woes has escalated to an unprecedented level, and the behaviour of politicians is referenced as the reason for the loss of voter interest in participating.

Certainly, the silliness of much of the point-scoring inside Parliament and on the hustings has undermined the notion of responsible government. The Sky City debacle has played out as a carnival parade of poor decisions, lack of transparency, with a whiff of insider trading wafting from the wreckage.

We could attribute this to government incompetence but it may be more helpful to see it as an example of political theatre, staged with script and direction coming from the wings, leaving the actors making only empty gestures to those in the cheap seats.

The corporate aims of a gambling venture managed to usurp due government process, negotiating a deal that favoured their shareholders and left John Key and the Government holding no cards of any value in their hands.

The world is now governed by international corporates manipulating market forces to support their interests, employing the wiles of lobbyists and oiled by the huge opportunities for tax avoidance. Like the recording engineers who have a phantom row of buttons that musicians can tinker with but actually have no effect at all on the sound, our elected politicians can only fiddle with economic and social levers while multi-nationals shuffle their fortunes around the board, avoiding any responsibility for the outcome.

On a world scale, this can be seen in the ineffectual regulation of the Swiss bank HSBC which was found to be managing secret accounts and assisting corporates hide huge sums from countries that would like to collect the related taxes.

The same financial institutions and corporate empires often loudly lament the lack of skilled workers, health services and government investment in commercial enterprise while going to great lengths to reduce their obligation to pay taxes to the point where many multi-nationals may return nothing to the countries that produce their massive profits.

In the face of such powerful influences on international markets and the related social and economic forces, governments are left with only posturing and empty gestures while pretending that they actually have some power to enact policy. The resulting vacant space is then filled with pointless personal attacks, frivolous debate and shoddy policy in a desperate attempt to show that they are doing something. This effect is more evident in Australia than here. Prime Minister Tony Abbott is desperately pretending that he, not the corporates, is in charge of the country, while the massive interests of the mining and banking industries use their financial might to dictate the direction. His foolish response to recent events has made it clear that he is nothing but a puppet to bigger forces.

Here in New Zealand, John Key is entering similar dangerous territory by emulating the Abbott strategy of creating a magnified fear of the threat posed by terrorism. This, in turn, creates a lucrative opportunity for corporations to embrace secrecy while providing security equipment and data search programmes that monitor communications that spy on entire populations.

These companies have no interest in enhancing civil, democratic society - their only interest is in profits. They will be rubbing their corporate hands in glee as the NZ parliament introduces legislation that will make them money and will be using every opportunity to talk up the risks and reinforce the fear - leaving good government lost in the space between profits and policy.

Terry Sarten is a Wanganui-based writer, musician, social worker and opinionator - feedback: tgs@inspire.net.nz