Thanks to yesterday's leak of papers in the US, details have been revealed of New Zealand government moves to secretly sign up to the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), that contain provisions that would allow for foreign countries and corporations to sue governments if they dislike the policy.
One example of this would be if a future government tried to enact measures to protect the country's sovereignty or environment by restricting the drilling for oil off the coast the oil companies could sue the NZ government.
It seems that the Australians, who are subject at the moment to legal action over their plans to introduce plain packaging for cigarettes are refusing to agree to these provisions, whereas New Zealand has already indicated its assent.
Today the leader of the opposition Green Party, Russel Norman, gave an interview on the radio in prime time that very effectively revealed the deeply duplicitous and anti-democratic nature of the NZ government's actions.
The reaction of the government to this will be highly revealing. Either they will back down to maintain their rapidly fading popularity or they will stonewall and be revealed to all for what they are.
