Robert MacCulloch
Robert MacCulloch is a native of New Zealand. He worked at the Reserve Bank of NZ, before he travelled to the UK to complete a PhD in Economics at Oxford University.
Who was sitting next to Prime Minister Luxon on NZ’s Airforce One, which conked out and got replaced by Air NZ One, on his trade trip to Japan recently? Antonia Watson, the CEO of ANZ Bank, of course. Who was the chair of ANZ, who stood down a short time ago? The current NZ PM’s mentor and close friend and confidant, John Key, who helped get him his current job. Who’s on the board of the NZ Initiative, the National Party’s unofficial economic adviser? Another former chair of ANZ. Who did ANZ hire to deflect bad publicity that the company is a blood-sucking monopoly? Jessica Mutch McKay, who is head of government relations at the bank. She’s formerly TVNZ’s highest profile reporter, who conducted the leaders debates at the last election.
If you're a journalist these days, working for a state broadcaster, then the deal is to be a chameleon. One day you’re a raving leftie. The next you’re a born-again far-right supporter of Big Business. All in a flash. A mercenary for hire. ANZ is Australian registered but a majority of its shareholders are Americans. It’s a modern incarnation of England’s East India Company. Indistinguishable from government. Shipping the loot made from exploiting the locals back to the mother ship.
There’s no worry about bad publicity. Mutch McKay and ANZ’s sophisticated Comms and Marketing Team will kill that kind of story in the mainstream media and ensure it never gets traction. And next time the mainstream media want to play ‘lets pretend to help the public with useful economic advice’, it will mysteriously wield out ANZ’s chief economist, Sharon Zollner, to give the bank a truck-load of free publicity. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Willis has sent the Commerce Commission’s banking report to Treasury asking for advice (because she has no plan and doesn’t want one). What will be the outcome? The status quo.
If the NZ right-wing thinks it’s smart playing the public for suckers, it doesn’t know what’s coming its way. It will win the battle and lose the war. Public anger is growing. Sooner or later the attack on what are seen as illegitimate Big Business interests made up of useless people who’ve never invented a single interesting product in their life will begin. It will start with capital and asset taxes. The root of the problem is that most folks running our big corporates are not inventors or producers of the Steve Jobs (of Apple) type. Most have little specialized knowledge of their industry. Most have got there by virtue of Old Boys and Old Girls clubs. Before scoffing at NZ’s public sector, our private sector should take a look at itself and see what an ugly picture it has become.
This article was originally published by Down to Earth Kiwi.
