Single Currency To “Attract US Investors” Is Problem, Not Solution

The Prime Minister is following where National started, by kite flying on the issue of New Zealand and Australia having a single currency. Her stated reason – that a common currency would attract US investors, which is presented as a good thing – must be firmly rebuffed.

New Zealand has one of the most unrestricted foreign investment regimes on Earth. We have had decades of American (and every other sort of foreign) investment. What have we got to show for it?

* hundreds of thousands unemployed, many as a result of transnational corporations restructuring, closing down, or relocating to Australia and further afield.

* a record foreign debt, which is now more than 100% of GDP, despite more than a decade of public asset sales to transantionals.

* a record balance of payments deficit, primarily due to there being no restrictions on transnationals shipping their profits out of the country.

* a crumbling infrastructure and Third World problems (such as diseases caused by poverty), attributable to making NZ “attractive to foreign investment”.

New Zealand has had ample experience with all sorts of American investors - do we want more greedy profiteers such as Telecom or companies indifferent to their workers’ safety, such as TranzRail? Why does the PM want to attract more of them?

If such a single currency does come to pass, the only step left is to become a state of Australia. What possible benefit would that be to New Zealanders? We would simply be the poor cousins, the eastern isles, neglected and forgotten. Why would the Aussies want us – they’ve already got one Tasmania to forget and neglect.

Trying to hop into the kangaroo’s pouch for the feeble reason to “make us attractive to American investors” really shows how desperate this Government is. Yet more foreign investment is not the answer for New Zealand; decades of unrestricted foreign takeovers are actually the problem. The Government would be more gainfully employed doing something about rolling that back, not looking for more of it.

Murray Horton Secretary/Organiser Ph (03) 3663988

CAFCA >Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa >PO Box 2258, Christchurch >email: cafca@chch.planet.org.nz >

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