Human Rights, Environment Obligations, and Ethical Investment: Aotearoa New Zealand is Going Down the Wrong Path
Dr Robert Howell
1 Introduction and Summary
A considerable portion of the world’s investments are unethical in that they have inadequate regard for the welfare of people and/or the planet. They invest in companies that abuse workers’ or other stakeholders rights. Their activities destroy our environment. Very few companies are fully fossil-free, or operate within ecological boundaries. One of the reasons for this is that the term ethical investing is defined by such unvalidated concepts as ESG, or responsible.
Should the Reserve Bank target unemployment as well as inflation? Will the new government abolish the dual mandate?
Back in 1989 – near the end of the fourth Labour government – the inflation-busting Reserve Bank Act was passed. Labour has shifted well away from the Rogernomics of that decade, and in 2021 Grant Robertson added maximum sustainable employment to the bank’s mandate - with the support of coalition partner NZ First.
Our Reserve Bank joined a powerful grouping of central banks that have dual targets, including the US Federal Reserve, the Reserve Bank of Australia, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England and the European Central Bank.
Going into the 2023 election, National and Act committed to a return to the 1989 objective. Will they take us out of the mainstream and into a straitjacket rather than a life-jacket? And how does it square with their stated aim of getting people off the dole and back to work?
The next three years – the job ahead for Labour, Greens and Te Pāti Māori
The Fabians had a session on Nov 14th reflecting on the elections. Our panel of Simon Wilson, Senior Writer at NZ Herald, Bridie Witton, Stuff Press Gallery Reporter and Ollie Neas, freelance writer used the election results as a springboard to target some of the key issues for Labour, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori as they head into opposition.
Thank you for the opportunity to discuss the Pae Ora health reforms with you.
Since I was sacked by the Health Minister I have taken time to reflect on the experience and to make a considered assessment of what I learned in the process. My intention tonight is to share that with you, making the assumption that we share common ground in wanting to have an effective, efficient, excellent and equitable public health service.
If anyone does not want that, I don’t really have anything useful to share with you.
Dr Gareth Morgan is CEO of Gareth Morgan Investments portfolio manager, and a director of economics consultancy Informetrics Ltd which he founded in 1982.
Gareth worked for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand in the early 1980s before founding Infometrics Limited, a private economic forecasting and consulting business, in 1983. The company has developed into one of New Zealand's leading independent economics businesses. In 2000, Gareth established Gareth Morgan Investments Limited, a personal portfolio investment business, which has grown to be one of the biggest private businesses of its type in New Zealand.
He is a director of Infometrics Limited; he was a director of Trade Me Limited until 2006; and he was a director of the listed company Property For Industry Limited from 1994 - 2008. Gareth has been involved with investment management since 1990 when he developed a portfolio management advisory service for Infometrics Limited's clients operating in the funds management industry. This service became the basis of GMI.
Infometrics is a well-known economics consultancy, which New Zealand's major corporate and investment houses retain for economic and strategic advice. It also has public sector clients including The Treasury, Reserve Bank, IRD and Ministry of Economic Development.
Dr Morgan is also a well-known columnist and for over a decade has contributed weekly columns to newspapers including the National Business Review, The New Zealand Herald, The Dominion, The Christchurch Press, Evening Post and Unlimited.
Rhema Vaithianathan, Ph.D., is currently the Director of the Centre for Applied Research in Economics and an Associate Professor in Economics at the University of Auckland. Previously, she was a research fellow at Australian National University, an independent economic consultant and policy analyst at the New Zealand Treasury. She was a Harkness Fellow at Harvard and a Foreign Scholar at Hitotsubashi University in Japan. She has published widely in health economics, entrepreneurship and development economics. She was awarded an University of Auckland's Business School Research Excellence Award. She earned both her doctorate in economics and master's of commerce from the University of Auckland.
Rick Boven leads the New Zealand Institute. He was a strategic management consultant for more than 25 years and was the founding partner of the Boston Consulting Group in New Zealand. An Accredited Fellow of the Institute of Directors, Rick's recent directorships include ASB Bank, Sovereign Insurance, Wellington Drive Technologies, and Simtics. Rick has worked with leading companies in Australia, New Zealand and the U.S.A in a wide range of industries including financial services, industrial distribution, energy, telecommunications, information technology and on-line, transport, manufacturing, and agriculture. He has a Ph.D. in Environment Management from the University of Auckland, a Master of Business Administration from the Australian Graduate School of Management, and a Master of Arts (Psychology) from Victoria University of Wellington. Rick has university teaching experience in psychology, social work, research methodology, business strategy, and managing change. He has publications in social welfare, mathematical psychology, the educational sociology, strategic management, business ethics, and economic development.
{jcomments off}John Walley is an experienced shareholder, director, manager and technologist with significant international experience in strategy, technology, product development, operations and intellectual property management.
John was previously a business development and engineering director at Gallagher, a director of Industrial Research, Stabi-Craft Marine, and chair of Canterprise, Nanotechnology Devices and Prolificx.
Six years as a Crown Research Director, thirteen years as an active member of the Technology New Zealand reference group, and many years experience in manufacturing and new product development gives John a broad and pragmatic view of the world.
He has taught commercial innovation papers on the University of Waikato Master of Business Administration programme.
Currently, in addition to being a director Imarda, he is a director of Hamer, a director and shareholder of Powerhouse, and a Chair and shareholder of Horotane Investments and ProActive Software Limited.
John is also a founder and shareholder of several other companies that offer software as service solutions in the psychological testing, systems compliance and medical device domains.
He consults to a number of companies in South Africa, USA, Australia, UK and France.
Mistakes, failures and sufficient success for hope to transcend experience form a long-term commitment to the development of the high technology manufacturing sector in New Zealand; this drives him in his role as Chief Executive of the New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
John has an Honours Degree in Electrical Engineering, is a Chartered Engineer, a Fellow of the Institute of Professional Engineers NZ, a Fellow of the Institute of Management NZ and a Member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers in the UK.
Kennedy (Ken) Graham was elected to Parliament in 2008 and serves as the Green Party's parliamentary Musterer.
Ken has most recently taught international politics and international law at the School of Law, Canterbury and Victoria University, and as Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges. He has previously worked for NGOs in New York, the UN in Europe and the Middle East, and as a NZ diplomat in Asia, Europe and North America. He was involved in negotiating the South Pacific Nuclear-Free Zone, defending the policy before the UN in Geneva and New York. He was also Director of a UN academy in Jordan.
Ken holds a B.Com from Auckland University, a BA Hons in Political Science from Victoria; an M.A. from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Boston (Fulbright); and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Victoria University. He was also a Fellow at Cambridge University, studying in the Global Security Programme. Ken has authored and edited five books including 'The Planetary Interest – A New Concept for the Global Age' which looks at issues of climate change, sustainability and nuclear weapons from a global perspective.