27 May 2002

Christian Heritage Shocked At Cullen’s Lack Of Professionalism

Christian Heritage strongly advocates, and insists on, elected and appointed government officials being held to a high standard of professionalism, integrity, and ethics. Most individual New Zealanders are at the mercy of ‘market forces’, having no power to influence interest rates, exchange rates, share prices, inflation rates, etc. and look to government to ‘look after their best interests’.

We were concerned last month that reports indicated a suggestion of insider trading involving the Prime Minister’s office and Air New Zealand shares had to be referred to the Securities Commission. Another report indicated possible government failure to ascertain or consider the alleged conviction for insider trading in British Columbia of a recipient of New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development assistance. We have also seen the recently hired, then fired, head of Maori Broadcasting convicted of fraud.

These reports are troubling in that they indicate a lack of understanding and/or lax attitude toward business and commercial ethics. On top of these reports we were disappointed about the ethical failure evidenced by the Prime Minister (who is also Minister of Arts, Culture and Heritage) signing artworks she did not produce for sale in fundraising promotions.

Now we see that the Minister of Finance, Dr Cullen, has ‘chilled’ or ‘spooked’ the foreign exchange market by telling the media that it would be undesirable for the New Zealand Dollar’s rise to continue indefinitely, because it would hurt exporters. The New Zealand Dollar quite naturally dropped as a result of these totally inappropriate and unprofessional comments about our currency by the Finance Minister. It is hoped that Dr Cullen had not pre-warned anyone in the market of his manipulative statement thus putting them in a position of undue advantage to unfairly exploit the market.

It is time for this government and its ministers to be held to a high standard of professionalism, integrity, and ethics in their governance. Perhaps the high opinion poll ratings are causing the government to take their power for granted. It is not good enough to dismiss these failings as frivolous and inconsequential. As it is written: “Anyone who can be trusted in little matters can also be trusted in important matters. But anyone who is dishonest in little matters will be dishonest in important matters.” (Luke 16:10; Contemporary English Version of the Bible.)

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