Health Coalition Aotearoa (HCA) strongly endorses calls for tough action to protect our political processes from perceptions of corruption, outlined in a new report released by the Helen Clark Foundation today.

HCA is committed to closing the health prevention gap in Aotearoa by advocating for Te Tiriti-led, evidence-based policies that reduce consumption of harmful products including alcohol, tobacco, and unhealthy food.

Having balanced public policy-making systems with strong transparency and accountability are fundamental for our democracy.

The Government’s lack of progress in making urgent changes needed to bring balance and transparency to public policy making is extremely disappointing.

In May, the Ministry of Justice released a draft, self-regulated Voluntary Code of Conduct for Lobbying.

HCA argues the code, written by and for industry lobbyists, is self-regulated, voluntary, and lacks enforcement mechanisms, rendering it ineffective.

"We’ve seen industry-initiated voluntary codes before, and they simply don’t work. Without independent oversight, compliance enforcement, and measurable effectiveness, a voluntary code is meaningless," says Dr David Galler, HCA’s Public Health Infrastructure Expert Panel Co-Chair.

Without robust measures to ensure transparency, the Government can make decisions that benefit the few, without scrutiny, and input from the public.

There are numerous examples from this Government in failures to ensure transparency in decisions over vital public health policy including the repeal of the Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Act 2022, abuse of the OIA in relation to the repeal for which the Associate Minister of Health Casey Costello was forced to apologise, the decision to cut funding to the healthy school lunches programme - Ka Ora, Ka Ako, the decision to increase the alcohol levy to $16.6million instead of the recommended $37million.

"In a healthy democracy, policy decisions should be informed by a wide range of voices to reflect the common good. Unfortunately, some individuals and companies wield disproportionate influence, swaying decisions towards private and commercial interests," says Dr. Galler.

He points out that this undue influence often comes from intensive lobbying, the revolving door between government and lobbying firms, and the lack of transparency surrounding these activities.

"New Zealand must strengthen its defences against this undue influence and ensure that the playing field is level for everyone," says Dr Galler.

"Under the current structures of New Zealand Parliament, the public are often left out of the decision-making process, and the pressure groups have more influence than the public on some issues."

HCA urges the Government to follow the example of other OECD countries that have stronger systems in place to protect the public good from vested interests. They call for immediate action to:

1. Implement a public register of lobbyists' meetings with decision-makers, enforce a mandatory code of conduct, and establish an integrity commission for oversight.

2. Slow the Revolving Door by introducing a "cooling off" period for former ministers and officials before they can become lobbyists, preventing misuse of confidential state information.

3. Strengthen codes of conduct for government employees, appointees, and contractors to ensure that commercial conflicts of interest are declared and managed properly.

4. Revise the Official Information Act to increase automatic publication of government information and make it harder to deny information requests, improving visibility into ministerial decisions.

"For New Zealanders to have confidence that decisions are made in the public interest, we need to know who is lobbying whom to have the assurance that everyone has an equal opportunity for their voices to be heard," says Dr Galler.

The Helen Clark Foundation’s recent report, Shining a Light: Improving Transparency in New Zealand's Political and Governance Systems strongly endorses HCA’s A Balance of Voices: Options for the Regulation of Lobbying in New Zealand , which includes recommendations for specific legislation, a lobbying register, a stand-down period, and a mandatory code of conduct for lobbyists.

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