New Zealand’s chief trade negotiator Mark Sinclair privately told a visiting US State Department official that New Zealand had little to gain from a free-trade agreement. This view – recorded in a confidential US embassy cable released by WikiLeaks – differs from the one the public has been given.
New Zealand Herald article on the closure of Timberlands, see Secrets and Lies The Government has given state-owned forestry company Timberlands the axe. State-owned Enterprises Minister Trevor Mallard today announced the loss-making entity’s assets would be transferred to Crown Forestry. The SOE has hit the rocks in the past two years after reporting financial losses [...]
Seeds of Distrust, the story of a GE cover-up Foreword In 1999 I co-authored a book about the relationship between government, business and public relations companies. Our conclusion was that secrecy allowed the then National Government to abuse power as it allowed state agencies to mislead the public and play politics in pursuit of their [...]
The book tells the story of how the New Zealand government handled the unwelcome news of contamination of corn crops with genetically-engineered seeds. Officials succumbed to industry lobbying, quietly changed the regulations to “allow” contaminated crops. ‘managed’ the risk of politicians and the public objecting by keeping the whole incident secret. The book is not about the corn but about the political management. It takes readers step-by-step through the crisis, based on original documents from an unhappy insider.
Introduction to the United States Edition of Secrets and Lies As public relations companies export techniques for manipulating democracy around the globe, citizens in every country urgently need to share knowledge of these tactics and how to deal with them. Secrets and Lies is a rare and detailed exposé of how modern PR companies can influence [...]
Afterword to the United States Edition of Secrets and Lies The anti-environmental campaign described in Secrets and Lies might have made a depressing story, where the secret tactics and constant lies succeeded in defeating the genuine community groups. However, despite illuminating some of the dark side of politics, the lessons from the New Zealand rainforest [...]
A based on hundreds of leaked public relations papers, the book shows how PR consultants think and act when they are being paid to try to influence politics. It shows the range of techniques used by PR companies to manufacture political support for their clients and dirty tricks they use to stop their client’s opponents being heard.