[asia-apec 1057] Media Release - 1998 Roger Award for Worst TNC in NZ

[Gatt Watchdog]

                          MEDIA RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE USE
1 April 1999

MAYOR OF DUNEDIN & PROMINENT MAORI LAWYER TO ANNOUNCE SECOND ANNUAL ROGER
AWARD FOR WORST TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATION IN NZ

The second annual Roger Award for the worst transnational corporation
operating in New Zealand will be announced at a function in Christchurch later
this month.  The Award is being organised by Corso, Campaign Against Foreign
Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA), and GATT Watchdog.

"We have received nominations from right around New Zealand.  Finalists
include Telecom, agrochemical and bio-engineering giant Monsanto, Carter Holt
Harvey, Fletcher Challenge, TranzRail (the 'winner' of the inaugural award,
announced in February 1998), and last year's joint second 'prizewinner', INL"
says a spokesperson for the organisers, Leigh Cookson.  

The judges for the Roger award are the Mayor of Dunedin, Sukhi Turner; Ngati
Pikiao lawyer and Treaty activist Annette Sykes; President of the NZ Trade
Union Federation, Maxine Gay; and Director of Nga Kaiwhakamarama I Nga Ture
(Maori Legal Service) Moana Jackson.  Mayor Turner and Mr Jackson will be
present to announce the award on 27 April.

The award will be announced in Christchurch at an evening function (at 8pm at
the Trade Union Centre, 199 Armagh St, Christchurch) during this month's APEC
Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Ministerial Meeting as part of a programme
of alternative activities to expose and oppose APEC being organised alongside
the Christchurch APEC meetings.

"Transnational corporations now dominate almost all aspects of the New Zealand
economy and our lives, from the food that we eat to the clothes that we wear
to the technology which we use to communicate with each other. In spite of
APEC's advocates pointing to such initiatives as the focus on small and
medium sized enterprises, APEC has been shaped primarily by and for big
business interests.   Successive New Zealand governments have told us that
what is good for big business is good for the rest of us. The bottom line for
transnational corporations is profit. These corporations are behind the push,
through free trade and investment arrangements like APEC, to get governments
to comply with their demands to be able to operate however, and wherever they
like, without any accountability to the communities they affect.  The Roger
Award is one way to hold big business accountable and generate some
much-needed debate about the role of transnational corporations in New
Zealand", said Ms Cookson.

The award will be given to the transnational corporation judged to have had
the most negative impact in each or all of the following fields: unemployment,
monopoly, profiteering, abuse of workers/conditions, political interference,
environmental damage, cultural imperialism, impact on tangata whenua, running
an ideological crusade, impact on women, health and safety of workers and the
public.

For further comment, contact Leigh Cookson 
Ph. (03) 3662803 (w); Email: corso at corso.ch.planet.gen.nz