The ranking came out a week before Public Service Commission released the findings of an inquiry into how government agencies protected personal information for the 2023 census. Photo: RNZ
The misuse of data, scamming, fraud, tax evasion and lax rules around lobbying are all contributing to New Zealand's drift down the global corruption index rankings.
It is another one of those world rankings that would not mean a lot to most New Zealanders.
Our position on the latest global Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is four.
Fourth in the world - not bad. But we used to be first - or first equal with Denmark - and we are now on a downward slide, overtaken for third by Singapore.
And for trade, business and the economy, that matters.
Today on The Detail we talk about the repercussions of being seen as lax when it comes to watchdogging issues that could lead to corruption.
They include the misuse of data, not being on top of stopping scams, obfuscation around government spending or who contracts are handed out to, bribery, fraud, tax evasion, shady lobbying, as well as government spending cuts that could remove checks and balances in the system and leave it open to abuse.
It is all happening here, and they are all contributing to a chipping away of our international reputation.
Perceptions matter. "Brand New Zealand" is a key driver behind our export industry, including tourism. That brand has taken decades to build up, but could be torn down very quickly.
A drop in the corruption ranking makes it harder for companies to trade or do business with us, affects the cost of accessing finance, which eventually trickles down to household mortgages, and also influences big multi-national firms when it comes to entering the New Zealand market.
The CPI ranking came out on 11 February, just a week before the release of the Public Service Commission's inquiry into how government agencies did or didn't protect personal information for the 2023 census.
That forced the resignation of government statistician and Stats NZ chief executive Mark Sowden.
Transparency International NZ chief executive Julie Haggie says our drop in the CPI has been dramatic and we are now seven points behind Denmark.
"That's a fairly good indication that we're not going to get back up to the top."
She says that while our ranking is still good, and that we still have really good systems in New Zealand such as the Auditor-General and Ombudsman to protect us, there is a huge risk that we are not doing enough to counter the increasing threats from corruption, from both outside and inside the country.
For example there are no rules over lobbying; we don't have a beneficial ownership register to reveal who might be in control of trusts and shell companies; and there's no independent watchdog for corruption.
Transparency International NZ says lobbing here is "unrestrained and opaque", with no professional standards, and no public register of lobbyists or the clients they represent.
The group sees this as a risk, with no accountability of how the private sector engages with one part of the executive wing of government, undermining the impartial and transparent advice provided by the public service.
Haggie explains in the podcast how the CPI is determined, which includes looking at nine different surveys on public sector integrity.
That includes conflicts of interest, lobbying, and questions over the judiciary's ability to respond to appeals on things like procurement for example.
Transparency International wants a national approach to corruption and has been arguing for it for a long time now.
"We haven't got a single agency like a lot of countries do... that's got the responsibility for strategy, monitoring and coordination.
"I'm afraid now we're starting to see the pressures that are on New Zealand, internally and externally... really put pressure on what we've been somewhat complacent about. We've sort of thought 'we're fine', you know, 'nothing to see here'.
"But we've said for some time 'no there really are risks and we're not really addressing them properly'."
She says in recent years we've seen prosecutions for corruption in roading contracts, bribes in transport infrastructure where large contracts were involved, big cases of tax evasion, immigration officials bribed, and pressure on our financial systems as people try to use and abuse it.
Just yesterday a former Auckland Council building inspector was sentenced for taking $35,000 in bribes over home renovations.
Haggie says we are also too lax about countering the increasing number of scams targeting New Zealanders.
A lack of transparency in the lobbying industry, and government attempts to hide information worry environmental campaigner Adam Currie, from 350 Aotearoa.
The latest issue for him is that the Ombudsman had to force the Environment Ministry to release a personal wish-list of fast track projects from MPs that - for nearly a year - it had denied existed.
Currie says we are increasingly seeing the government pressure agencies not to reveal information they should be releasing, as well as lobbying groups pressuring the government to withhold information.
"This is just one example - it's happening over and over again," he says. "Government agencies become black boxes of secrecy. It's a blatant attempt to keep New Zealanders in the dark.
"[There are] basic questions that we used to get serious answers to, and now they get treated as OIAs, and often take six months to respond. It's incredibly untransparent and it really is a marked change from what it used to be just two or three years ago.
"Quite often they'll say that documents don't exist that we literally know exist... you know, maybe we've got a friend that works for MfE or whatever that isn't able to provide the documents to us but lets us know they exist. We OIA them, they say they don't exist, and then six months later they appear magically out of the blue... it's incredibly frustrating.
"There's this global tide of disbelief in democracy and conspiracy theories and all this stuff, and the government should be pushing for transparency, showing they don't have anything to hide, engaging with people, building trust... this has never been more important."
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