Increase the Tax on Profiteering Aussie Banks

Squeeze them until it hurts
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The Government is asking loaded questions about how  Christchurch’s multibillion dollar post-earthquake recovery will be financed? There are less than subtle hints about flogging off Christchurch’s large and very valuable portfolio of publicly-owned assets. Wrestling back some of the ill-gotten gains of the big foreign banks is a much more palatable alternative. 

News that the Big Five Australian-owned banks made a combined NZ profit of $3 billion in 2011 means only one thing – they’re making too much money out of us. They must be laughing all the way to the bank. Hang on, they are the bank.
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These banks always make a big PR fuss about how much they contribute to the NZ community. But these are exactly the same banks who, in December 2009, settled out of court with IRD for attempting to dodge payment of an astonishing $2.2 billion of taxes that, between them, they avoided via deliberately complicated structured financial transactions. And that out of court settlement was for 20% less than what IRD was seeking – plus they would have had to pay costs if they’d persisted in going to court and losing (two of them had already lost in court before they all decided to throw in the towel).
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So that's how they rode out the recession, by not paying nuisance costs such as taxes. Not an option for the rest of us mugs who have to pay our taxes, whether we like it or not. This was the biggest tax avoidance case in New Zealand’s history – and it happened at the same time as the deposits in those Australian-owned banks were guaranteed by New Zealand taxpayers (who got no say in the governance of those banks).
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The Government wrings it's hands
about the global financial crisis while
super profits are sucked out of the country 

As a result they paid 47% more tax in 2011 than they did in 2010. But they still sucked $3 billion out of the country. These super profits need to be taxed more. This comes at a time when the Government is wringing its hands about how is it going to finance NZ’s recovery from the global financial crisis? Its’ only ideas are to borrow more; sell public assets; slash the State sector and public services; and bash beneficiaries. Here’s an idea – instead of grinding the faces of the poor to pay for a global crisis caused by the crimes of transnational banks, it should raise the tax on the transnational banks that are creaming it here in this country. 
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Specifically the Government is asking loaded questions about how will Christchurch’s multibillion dollar post-earthquake recovery be financed? There are less than subtle hints about flogging off Christchurch’s large and very valuable portfolio of publicly-owned assets. Wrestling back some of the ill-gotten gains of the big foreign banks is a much more palatable alternative. Make the rich pay.
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That would be poetic justice in the case of at least one of those Aussie banks. One of the reasons why Westpac was selected as one of the eight finalists for the 2011 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand was because, shamefully, it pressured its Christchurch tellers to meet normal sales targets by pushing loans and insurance products onto financially stricken Christchurch customers after the earthquakes, adopting a “business as usual” policy. That bank can definitely afford to pay more tax. It paid its’ Chief Executive Officer $5.8 million and $5.4 million respectively, over the past two years, making him the highest paid CEO in NZ.
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Squeeze them until it hurts. They've been bleeding NZ dry for too long.

2011 Roger Award Finalists Named

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The eight finalists for the 2011 Roger Award for the Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand are: Adidas, Newmont Waihi Gold, Oceania, New Zealand Aluminium Smelters Ltd/Rio Tinto Alcan NZ Ltd, Sajo Oyang Corporation, Sky City, Telecom and Westpac. There is one finalist for the Accomplice Award – the Government (in its own right and accompanying both Sajo Oyang and Telecom).

Get the details 

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John Minto's Blog - Roger Award

John Minto wrote about the Roger Award in his blog on the herald. John's blog is definitley worth having a read of - check it out at http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/opinion/frontline

ASH - Roger Award Press Release

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) NZ
British American Tobacco recognised as NZ’s worst corporate citizen

British American Tobacco (BAT) is the worst transnational company in New Zealand after receiving the annual ‘Roger’ Award at a ceremony in Auckland.

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) says this confirms that New Zealand is waking up to the sustained public relations campaigns by the tobacco industry.

“New Zealanders are now starting to wonder why they tolerate a company that not only kills 4000 kiwis a year, but takes money away from the country as well,” said ASH director, Ben Youdan.

Organised by the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA), the Roger award is presented to any corporation that is 25 per cent or more foreign controlled and is judged to have the most negative effect on economic matters, people and the environment.

“ASH made this nomination because half of BAT’s best customers will die as a result of smoking their products, so we considered they need to be recognised for this contribution to our society,” said Mr Youdan.

Mr Youdan says that the corporate social responsibility reports that the company produce are designed to convince people that the company is caring and responsible when the opposite is true.

“Cigarettes are the only legal product on the market today that when consumed exactly as this company intends will likely kill you, but they’re unlikely to mention this death toll in their glossy reports” said Mr Youdan.

BAT is actively opposing measures that would see a ban on the display of tobacco in shops where children and former smokers can see them via the New Zealand Association of Convenience Stores (NZACS) of which BAT is a premier member

For further information please contact:

Ben Youdan, director, ASH NZ: 021 733 444

2008 Roger Award

Okay - so i'll admit it has been forever and a day since I have udated this blog! My apologies - perhaps updates will coincide with breaks at university - though it is still my intention to update as things come along.

So first thing I need to tell people is the winner of the 2008 Roger Award. To find out more about the Roger Award visit www.cafca.org.nz This years winner was British American Tobacco. A worthy winner that has been nominated every single year. And one I am personally very pleased to see win.

Every year an event is held to announce the winner of the Roger Award. This years event was held in Auckland and featured music from the Electric Car, addresses from Murray Horton and Geoff Bertram (chief judge), as well as a great powerpoint display and presentation from ASH - the anti-smoking lobby group. It was a great night and I don't say so just cos I helped to organise it.

BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO NZ LTD WINS

RIO TINTO ALUMINIUM NZ LTD IS RUNNER UP
BUSINESS NEW ZEALAND WINNER OF ACCOMPLICE AWARD

The full, extremely detailed, Judges’ Report is available at www.cafca.org.nz, follow the Roger Award links.

Finalists: ANZ; BAT (British American Tobacco NZ); Contact Energy; GlaxoSmithKline; Infratil; McDonalds; Rio Tinto Aluminium NZ (nominated under its former name of Comalco); Telecom.

Criteria: the transnational (a corporation which is 25% or more foreign-owned) which is worst in each or all of the following: Economic Dominance - Monopoly, profiteering, tax dodging, cultural imperialism. People - Unemployment, impact on tangata whenua, women, children, abuse of workers/conditions, health and safety of workers and the public, cultural imperialism. Environment - Environmental damage, abuse of animals. Political interference - Cultural imperialism, running an ideological crusade.

Judges: Geoff Bertram, Wellington, a Victoria University economist; Brian Turner, Christchurch, immediate past President of the Methodist Church and social justice activist; Paul Corliss, Christchurch, a life member of the Rail and Maritime Transport Union; Cee Payne, Dunedin, Industrial Services Manager for the NZ Nurses’ Organisation and health issues activist; Christine Dann, Banks Peninsula, a writer and researcher; Bryan Gould, Bay of Plenty, a former Waikato University Vice-Chancellor. The winners were announced at an event in Auckland on March 2.

The Judges’ Statement on BAT says: “Its product kills 5,000 people every year and ruins the lives of tens of thousands. It perennially refuses to take responsibility for the social and economic consequences of its activity, while maintaining a major public relations effort to subvert the efforts of the Government to reduce cigarette consumption”. It is “a conspicuously bad corporate citizen”. The Financial Analysis reveals that BAT NZ’s 2007 profit after tax was a staggering 81% on opening shareholders’ funds, and a questionable borrowing and reinvestment arrangement with other BAT companies outside NZ that allows BAT to reduce its NZ income tax liability by $10 million per year, while hypocritically posturing as a socially responsible corporation.

Rio Tinto Aluminium was runner up because of its “single act of political intimidation”, threatening to close the Bluff smelter if the former Government’s proposed emissions trading scheme went ahead. “Business New Zealand and (CEO) Mr O’Reilly merit an Accomplice Award for their major PR contribution to sustaining the New Zealand government’s spineless record on non-regulation of monopolies and failure to control foreign investments into key sectors of the local economy”.

Introducing Roger - get your nominations in for 2008

The Roger Award

The Roger Award For The Worst Transnational Corporation operating in New Zealand has run annually since 1997. There are no prizes for guessing whom it is named after. It is organised by CAFCA and GATT Watchdog, both Christchurch-based groups, who rotate the annual organisation.

Nominations for the 2008 award are now open. The nomination form, which includes criteria and details of how to make a nomination, is available here in Word (52 KB) or PDF format (65KB).

You may have noticed that New Zealand has a general election this year. For election year only, there is a new Meddler’s Award for the transnational corporation which, judged on the same criteria as for the Roger Award itself, has the most negative impact on the direction or electoral process of the election campaign.

The judges for 2008 are: Geoff Bertram, from Wellington, a Victoria University economist; Brian Turner, from Christchurch, President of the Methodist Church and social justice activist; Paul Corliss, from Christchurch, a life member of the Rail and Maritime Transport Union; Cee Payne-Harker, from Dunedin, Industrial Services Manager for the NZ Nurses' Organisation and health issues activist; Christine Dann, from Banks Peninsula, a writer and researcher; and Bryan Gould, from Bay of Plenty, a former Waikato University Vice-Chancellor. They will be given a shortlist of finalists. The winner(s) will be announced at an Auckland event in early 2009.

Criteria and details of previous winners are below.

The winner of the 2007 award was announced in March 2008. Read the media release by the organisers announcing the winner and the Judges' Statement, report and financial analysis of the winner.

See also the speech given by Murray Horton of CAFCA for the organisers of the event.

The finalists were Telecom, Spotless, Pike River Coal, ANZ, British American Tobacco (BAT), Independent Liquor, APN News & Media (ANM), and GlaxoSmithKline.
New for 2007 was an Accomplice Award. It was won by the Whanganui DHB.

The winners of all awards since its inauguration in 1997 are:
Telecom (2007)
Progressive Enterprises (2006)
Bank of New Zealand and Westpac (2005)
Telecom (2004)
Juken Nissho (2003)
Tranz Rail (2002)
Carter Holt Harvey (2001)
Tranz Rail (2000)
TransAlta (1999)
Monsanto (1998)
Tranz Rail (1997)

Plus the judges have awarded prizes for runners up, continuity and collaborators over the years. The Award has attracted considerable interest since its inception (even from the corporate media), and has had a succession of distinguished and completely voluntary judges. The events to announce the winners have become highly memorable in their own right.

Details of winners and judges' decisions since 2000 are below.

The criteria for judging are by assessing the transnational (a corporation with 25% or more foreign ownership) that has the most negative impact in each or all of the following categories:

Economic Dominance - Monopoly, profiteering, tax dodging, cultural imperialism

People - Unemployment, impact on tangata whenua, impact on women, impact on children, abuse of workers/conditions, health and safety of workers and the public, cultural imperialism

Environment - Environmental damage, abuse of animals

Political interference - Cultural imperialism, running an ideological crusade

There is also an Accomplice Award for an organisation (not an individual) which was the worst Accomplice during the year in aiding and abetting transnational corporations in New Zealand to behave as described in the criteria. The Accomplice’s award is in addition to the Worst Transnational Corporation award and will not necessarily be awarded every year.

Because Tranz Rail won three times, it was installed as the first occupant of the Hall of Shame. It thus became ineligible to be nominated again for the Roger Award. However under its new owner, Toll Holdings, the rail company is again eligible, but only for events related to the current year.

2007 Award
The 2007 winners are detailed in the Judges’ Statement, report and financial analysis of the winner (a 261KB PDF – Acrobat – file).

2006 Award
The 2006 winners are detailed in the Judges’ Statement, report and financial analysis of the winner (a 152KB PDF – Acrobat – file).

2005 Award
The 2005 winners are detailed in the Judges’ Statement, Roger Report, and Financial Analysis of the winners (a 214KB PDF – Acrobat – file).

2004 Award
The 2004 winners are detailed in the Judges’ Statement and Report, and financial analysis of Telecom (a 167KB PDF – Acrobat – file).

2003 Award
The 2003 winners are detailed in the Judges’ Statement and Report (a 54KB PDF – Acrobat – file), which for the first time provides a financial report on the winner.

2002 Award
The 2002 award winners are detailed in the Judges’ Statement (for a summary) and the Judges’ Report (a 118KB PDF – Acrobat – file) for a detailed backgrounder.

2001 Award
The 2001 award winners are detailed in the Judges’ Statement (for a summary) and the Judges’ Report (a 308KB PDF – Acrobat – file) for a detailed backgrounder.

2000 Award
The 2000 Roger Award for the worst Transnational operating in Aotearoa/New Zealand – Judges’ Report . (A 58KB PDF – Acrobat – file.)