Anton Right About Comalco; Richie Wrong About Westpac

A contrasting tale about two All Blacks this week, both captains (one current, one former).

Anton Oliver has been criticised in the past for not throwing in straight to the lineout. But his aim was dead on this week at the public hearings into Meridian's Lake Hayes windfarm proposal.

The Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA) congratulates him for once again foscusing attention on the seriously distorting role that Comalco's Tiwai Point smelter plays in the national electricity market.

For nearly 40 years it has been NZ's single biggest power user (using 16% of the national total, 24/7) and for all that time it has been susbsidised by the long suffering NZ taxpayer, paying a super cheap and still top secret price for its power.

It has been guaranteed uninterrupted supply, regardless of how other electricity users are faring. Successive governments, National and Labour, have kowtowed to it and given it special treatment.  

If politicians genuinely do want to give taxpayers a break, then that smelter should be closed, and this prime example of corporate welfare brought to an end.

And Oliver deserves credit for his courage in criticising the very transnational corporations (he also singled out Holcim) which dominate the NZ economy.

Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel and Big Business has been very quick to wrap itself in the flag and bask in the reflected glory of NZ's most world famous "brand", the All Blacks.

Rugby is the leading example of the corporate capture of sport.

But CAFCA is disappointed that Richie McCaw has signed on to be the Ambassador for Westpac for the next two years.

It's hard to pick which one of the four big Australian-owned banks is the worst of the lot, which is why the judges of the 2005 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand declared Westpac and BNZ to be joint winners (the detailed Judges' Report on why they made that choice can be read at www.cafca.org.nz, follow the Roger Award Links from the Views, Analyses and Research page).

These Big Four banks have sucked billions in profits out of the country, are a major player in the overheated housing market, aggressively push credit onto customers, which increases personal and national debt, and have a poor record when it comes to the way they treat the public, their customers and staff.

They need all the help they can get in trying to make themselves look good to the NZ public and it's a pity that the All Black captain has agreed to lend his considerable mana to Westpac. They are not worthy of it.

Murray Horton
Secretary/Organiser
CAFCA
Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa

ENDS

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