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.
Dr Chris Mahony is Political Economy Advisor at the Independent Evaluation Group at the World Bank, where he was formerly Criminal Justice and Citizen Security Specialist from 2014 to 2015. He is also Rule of Law, Justice, Security and Human Rights Advisor at UNDP, Research Fellow at the Centre for International Law Research and Policy, and Visiting Research Fellow at Georgetown University Law Centre. He holds a B.Com. and an LL.B. from the University of Otago, and a Master’s in African Studies (M.Sc.) and a D.Phil. in Politics from the University of Oxford. He was admitted to the bar of the High Court of New Zealand in 2006 where he appeared for the Crown in criminal and refugee matters.
In 2003, aged 21, Chris drafted the recommendations on governance and corruption for the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and co-authored the ‘Historical antecedents to the conflict’ chapter. In 2008, he directed the Witness Evaluation Legacy Project at the Special Court for Sierra Leone. He has advised governments, the private and not for profit sector on political economy, geopolitics, security, rule of law issues - issues on which he has published numerous books, articles, and policy papers. From 2012 to 2013, he was Deputy Director of the New Zealand Centre for Human Rights Law, Policy and Practice, Faculty of Law, Auckland University. While studying, he played professional rugby, including 3 years for Auckland, when they won the NPC and Ranfurly Shield (2007).
Nikki is an academic General Practitioner, working as a GP at NUHS Broadway clinic in Strathmore, Wellington. She is the Director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre, an Associate Professor in the School of Population Health, University of Auckland and an honorary Associate Professor, University of Otago. Nikki's academic interests are in primary health care, preventive child health and immunisation. She is a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE), which is the international advisory group on vaccines and immunization service delivery to the World Health Organization.
Susan is an Honorary Associate Professor in the Economics Department Auckland Business School, researching welfare and retirement policy issues. She is working on an analysis of family tax credit system, overseas pensions and their treatment in New Zealand, income and asset testing for long-term care, the welfare state reform, the role of home equity release and international pension systems, and tax reforms.
Deborah Russell is a senior lecturer in taxation at Massey University. She holds a PhD in Philosophy from the Australian National University. Deborah was the Labour candidate for Rangitikei in the 2014 general election.
Ian has three adult children & lives with Jan in sunny New Lynn. He lectures social work at Auckland Uni with interests in social justice, locally and globally. He also has a law degree & twenty years as a social worker & practice manager in statutory child protection in Auckland. Ian writes for the Re-Imagining Social Work blog site where he has written about the ‘revealed truth within the final report’. {jcomments off}