Human Rights, Environment Obligations, and Ethical Investment: Aotearoa New Zealand is Going Down the Wrong Path
Dr Robert Howell
1 Introduction and Summary
A considerable portion of the world’s investments are unethical in that they have inadequate regard for the welfare of people and/or the planet. They invest in companies that abuse workers’ or other stakeholders rights. Their activities destroy our environment. Very few companies are fully fossil-free, or operate within ecological boundaries. One of the reasons for this is that the term ethical investing is defined by such unvalidated concepts as ESG, or responsible.
Should the Reserve Bank target unemployment as well as inflation? Will the new government abolish the dual mandate?
Back in 1989 – near the end of the fourth Labour government – the inflation-busting Reserve Bank Act was passed. Labour has shifted well away from the Rogernomics of that decade, and in 2021 Grant Robertson added maximum sustainable employment to the bank’s mandate - with the support of coalition partner NZ First.
Our Reserve Bank joined a powerful grouping of central banks that have dual targets, including the US Federal Reserve, the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.
Going into the 2023 election, National and Act committed to a return to the 1989 objective. Will they take us out of the mainstream and into a straitjacket rather than a life-jacket? And how does it square with their stated aim of getting people off the dole and back to work?
The next three years – the job ahead for Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori
The Fabians had a session on Nov 14th reflecting on the elections. Our panel of Simon Wilson, Senior Writer at NZ Herald, Bridie Witton, Stuff Press Gallery Reporter and Ollie Neas, freelance writer used the election results as a springboard to target some of the key issues for Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori as they head into opposition.
Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the Pae Ora health reforms with you.
Since I was sacked by the Health Minister I have taken time to reflect on the experience and to make a considered assessment of what I learned in the process. My intention tonight is to share that with you, making the assumption that we share common ground in wanting to have an effective, efficient, excellent and equitable public health service.
If anyone does not want that, I don’t really have anything useful to share with you.
Robert Howell has recently returned from Canberra where he worked part-time with the Australian Quaker Peace and Earthcare Committees. During his time in Australia he also helped establish the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility to assist investors. He is one of the authors of Right Relationship Building a Whole Earth Economy, and one of a team of authors from Sustainable Aotearoa New Zealand in their publication, Strong Sustainability for New Zealand Principles and Scenarios.
The first presentation looked at the necessary foundations for a resilient economy based on modern science and ethics. The second presentation discussed some policy implications, and in particular ways to adapt to a turbulent future threatened by climate change, peak oil, water and food insecurity, and financial and banking system failures.
Suggestions were made for all sectors on how to change our investment and banking systems that are in keeping with scientific and ethical principles, and some of the ways that New Zealand can adapt and prepare for the rapid changes and crises that will be forced upon us by an international trading regime that can no longer cope.
The diagram from the first presentation is here, and the slides and audio recordings at the links above.
The painting in the photo above is of Fairburn, aged about 23, by Annette Isbey. Obscured is Phil Harington and at right is Christine Rose.In 1944, ARD Fairburn gave a lecture to the Auckland Fabian Club entitled 'The Land Our Life', a prescient inquiry into the relationship of 'modern' NZ society, industrial farming and their relationships with nature. The paper was was recently rediscovered and, last month, an Auckland audience enjoyed a fascinating event that saw Denys Trussell and Christine Rose revisit Fairburn's lecture.
A scan of the original paper is here, with a more legible pdf incorporating Fairburn's corrections here. We also have recordings of Denys Trussell's and Christine Rose's contributions. A PDF of Denys' paper is here and Christine's here.
As part of our commitment to ‘alternative narratives’ we are pleased to return to a topic introduced in 2013 by Professor David Mayes, Prof of Banking and Financial Institutions, Director Europe Institute and NZ Governance Centre, University of Auckland.
Even before the global financial crisis people had a pretty cynical view of ethical standards in finance, assisted by the collapse of the deposit-taking finance company sector. Now they probably view the Alex cartoon in the New Zealand Herald as summing up the behaviour of investment banks, at least. This is in striking contrast to what they do with their money. Most people are happy to lend their money at low rates of interest to banks without any security or hold over how they use that money. They behave as if they have made a deposit in Harry Potter's Gringotts Bank and it is being held for them completely safely in a well locked vault.
The presentation will generate discussion into how the financial system can be better regulated and will review where regulation in New Zealand has got to compared with the rest of the advanced countries. It is essential to consider Australia in particular as the strength of our financial system depends on what happens there. It is also worth considering why things were so much better (if they were) years ago, such as in the 'free banking' period in Scotland in the nineteenth century.
It will help with our planning if you register here.
{jcomments off}This is the text of the lecture delivered to an Auckland Fabian Society audience on 23rd May by Associate Professor Elizabeth Rata.
Abstract
The New Zealand Labour Party has embraced the politics of diversity wholeheartly and with little self-criticism since the 1970s. This presentation explains the ‘cultural turn of the Left’ and its unintended and damaging consequences. I conclude by asking is there an alternative to culturalism that could re-invigorate the Party’s commitment to redistributive politics.