For immediate release: 27 January 2002

It's more than just keeping the government honest

"Asking the government to come clean about its sell-out to GATS involves more than just keeping the government honest," Arena director Leigh Cookson told a group of anti Free-Trade protesters in Christchurch over the weekend. "It has to do with trying to keep together what's left of the country."

"A lot of people in this country need to be reminded of what's at stake if the government fails to keep its promise to consult before it commits us to further take-over of public services by GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services).

"This is not about the usual secret perks or ministerial inefficiency," Cookson said. "Our public services serve a long-standing social role. To allow international market rules to dominate policy ahead of public benefit is bound to change much of what New Zealand is all about."

Last June, all WTO member governments received a list of 'demands' from the United States and other large countries to increase the list of public services it intended to make accessible for foreign business. Already, the government has committed more than two dozen public services including maritime transport services, rail transport, road transport, private education and banking services.

Likely, the new demands will include removing local government authority and autonomy, stopping investigations of foreign investment by the Overseas Investment Commission, and opening up health services to private foreign investment. "Once these services have been given away, the cost in legal and commercial penalties would be too severe to ever consider trying to get them back," Cookson said.

"The deadline for the government to respond to the WTO 'demands' is March 31. That leaves just over two months for the government to make the list of demands public, to initiate real consultation, to consider submissions and to respond as they promised they would. There isn't time. In fact, we believe the government doesn't intend to consult the country at all.

"We think the government doesn't want the country to know what is going on behind the GATS doors or what New Zealand's role is going to be until it's too late to do anything about it. This is not about apple and pears. It's not even about overseas fishing rights. It's about our public services, and New Zealanders have a right to know what's happening to them," says Cookson.

This Wednesday, Arena (Action, Research and Education Network of Aotearoa) will launch Serving Whose Interests, a 140-page report on what the GATS means to New Zealand and its public services. Copies are available from PO Box 2450, Christchurch for $20, or from the Arena website at www.arena.org.nz

Ends. Text 432 words

Further information from Leigh Cookson at (03) 339-6341