liberation

Anti-war song heads for top 10

UK anti-war protesters have recorded a cover of Edwin Starr's song War (What Is It Good For?) and it looks like it's heading for the Top 10. The group have called themselves Ugly Rumours - the same name as the Tony Blair's student band. You can watch the video on Youtube (and trailer)- and you'll see the band's performance on  a rooftop. The lead singer is a Tony Blair lookalike, who at the end is arrested by two police officers - played by the anti-war campaigners Lauren Booth (the sister-in-law of the prime minister) and MP George Galloway. It's a great concept, but a pity it's not a new, modern anthem.

NZ complicit in American war crimes

It has been revealed that NZ troops in Afghanistan have been complicit in American war crimes. The Herald reports today that in 2002 NZ SAS captured 50-70 terrorist suspects in 'snatch-grab' missions and handed them over to the US armed forces. Rather than being treated as prisoners of war - which would have give them the protections of internationally agreed procedures - the suspects 'had their heads shaved, no photos or ID taken and their belongings thrown into a single pile'. Despite the New Zealanders having serious doubts about the treatment of the prisoners, neither the then Defence Minister Mark Burton, or the current one, Phil Goff, claim to have been informed of 'operational level' issues relating to this. It is possible that the suspects were sent to Guantanamo Bay.

NZ still have 116 troops in Afghanistan - allegedly involved in 'reconstruction'. NoRightTurn correctly comments that 'Helen Clark's decision to send the SAS to Afghanistan has seen New Zealand troops become complicit in American war crimes. And that is something we should hold her accountable for.'

Karl Marx: the Movie

Dialectical Cinematerialism! There's talk in Hollywood and London of making a film of the life of Karl Marx - possibly starring Johnny Depp as Marx and Vannessa Paradis as his wife Jenny. The film would be based on Francis Wheen's excellent 1999 biography. The Guardian has mocked up a photo of what Depp might look like as Marx, and there's discussion about who else could play the character.

The stench of putrefaction in Italian politics

Tariq Ali has written a good Guardian comment piece on the state of the left and the establishment in Italy - in relation to the unravelling Italian Government. He gives a run down on how the latest dispute has centred on the Government's unpopular support for the war in Afghanistan. The bulk of Italians want their troops removed from the country. Ali writes that 'Increasingly, official politics in the west ignores public opinion at will' and that it is this 'increasing distance between rulers and ruled that threatens the functioning of democracy and leads to desperation.' Politics on both left and right in Italy 'exude the stench of putrefaction'.

A nasty racist, little blurt by Maori Party

The lack of debate on the Maori Party's anti-white immigration policy has been a bit disappointing. The Dominion Post reported that an economist agreed that Maori have a genuine grievance against immigration (but an argument that doesn't actually amount to much), and the Herald just quoted an immigration recruitment consultant (who showed that white immigration has in some ways been on the decline). A better commentary was made by NoRightTurn, who calls Turia's policy a nasty racist, little blurt. Meanwhile the Guardian reports on a Pricewaterhousecoopers study which shows that 'the flow of migrant workers into the UK has boosted economic growth and helped keep a lid on inflation without undermining the jobs of British-born workers'.

Maori Party and others want to erode civil liberties

A disturbing erosion of civil liberties is being promoted by a coalition of social conservative politicians, including the Maori Party. In an attempt to deal with gang problems in NZ, politicians want to use the blunt and authoritarian measure of banning people wearing gang colours in public. National MP Chester Borrows is promoting the bill in Parliament to outlaw this personal expression. He's being backed by idiot so-called liberals like Christchurch Mayor Garry Moore who has said he's behind the idea '150 per cent'. He wants to impose his own personal likes and dislikes on society: 'Gang patches are disgusting. All power to the police'.

All this follows on from Maori Party co-leader, Pita Sharples, whipping up anti-gang feeling. He wanted to look at all gang insignia being banned, and he threatened to name and shame gangs and their members. Such an approach is reminiscent of Deborah Coddington's publishing a book of the identities and details of convicted sex offenders. Disappointingly, Sharples has been cheered on by other Maori leaders such as Willie Jackson.

The Maori Party's anti-immigrant populism

The Maori Party have adopted a new populist and racist anti-immigration policy. But whereas populists like Winston Peters have suggested there's too much asian immigration, the Maori Party say there are too many whites coming to New Zealand. Party leader, Tariana Turia lamely rejects the comparison, saying 'No, we aren't playing the race card, because we are not talking about Asian immigration.'

Turia says successive governments had used immigration against Maori - this time to stop the 'browning of New Zealand'. She says the effect of white immigration has been to stop the Maori gaining an additional electorate in the latest Statistics NZ calculation. Note that this false logic if refuted by Kiwiblog. But Helen Clark answered Turia perfectly sensibly, by saying 'Our country has been built on migration. You're part of it, I'm part of it, our forefathers were part of it.'

Unfortunately Maori nationalists have for a long time been anti-immigration. In the past Maori radicals have called for a complete halt to immigration (and especially pacific island immigration) until Treaty grievances are resolved.

Women's liberation and slapperisation

In the Sunday Star-Times, Ruth Laugeson reports on a cultural change that I've definitely noticed in New Zealand and abroad - 'a new climate of sexual explicitness in advertising' and beyond. Laugeson says that 'In a bizarre cultural U-turn, we seem to be back in the 1970s' to pre-feminist times when sexual objectification is rife. It's a very interesting article, but it doesn't really have any answers, which I think is feel enough. It's a complex issue, and one that I don't think there is simply a right or wrong. I tend to think the phenomenon is a mixture of both harmless and harmful post-feminist irony. Some elements of the sea change reflects a vulgar commodification of sex, and some of it seems quite liberating and fun. But I definitely agree that there is 'an intensification of sexual imagery sweeping the west', and that it reflects some sort of defeat for both conservative moralism and conservative feminism. [READ ON BELOW]

Rocketing wealth puts NZ millionaires and billionaires on the Forbes lists

New Zealand is becoming increasingly acquainted with Forbes magazine - the chronicler of mass wealth in the world. As the divide between the rich and poor exacerbates, the rich list is quickly finding more to report about from NZ. Today's Herald-on-Sunday reports that the annual Forbes list of the world's most expensive homes for sale finally lists a NZ home - Waiheke Island's Cowes Bay property, with an asking price of $26.5m. The article reports that the real estate industry is predicting that NZ will increasingly appear in the Forbes list, and that the price of many NZ properties was set to explode. It mentions last year's $10m sale of businesswoman Diane Foreman's North Shore clifftop home, the Bradley's $30m Coatesville estate, Mark Hotchin's $30m Paritai Drive home, and Lionel Rogers' $20m Parnell home.

Added to this, earlier in the month, Forbes magazine published the top 40 richest Australasians, which now includes a record eight New Zealanders. Last year you needed $404m to get on the list, but with rocketing wealth you now need $559m. NZ's richest person, Graeme Hart is now number three in Australasia. NZ's first female billionaire is also on the list - Lyn Erceg with an estimated $1.28b.

Too many protest singers, not enough protest songs

The Guardian reports that 'there is a gaping hole for a new anti-war anthem that will capture the moment and the mood'. The anti-war movement lacks a defining anthem for modern times and has to rely on old 60s songs like Country Joe's Fixing to Die, Edwin Starr's War (What is it Good For?) and Dylan's Masters of War. The leader of the UK's Stop the War coalition says that there's not quite as much anti-war support from the musical fraternity as he would have hoped for. As far as I can see, it's a case of what Edwin Collins used to sing: 'Too many protest singers, not enough protest songs'.

Govt to break election promise of open access to back country land

The Press is reporting that the Labour Government is set to break its promise to open up back country farm land to public access and recreation. The newspaper is call this a 'a major Government concession to farmers'. The Government had planned to force open large tracts of the countryside to public access through legislation - dubbed the 'Kiwi Queen's Chain'. But it appointed a panel to investigate the issue, and it looks like the Government will accept its recommendation to reaffirm the private land rights of farmers. The National Party is calling this 'a massive backdown', and Recreation Access New Zealand says its 'a complete and utter copout' by Labour and amounts to breaking their election promise. Of course Federated Farmers are saying that farmers are delighted that the $200,000 panel is recommending that Labour basically adopt the National Party's position.

Pacific subsidies for NZ business

New Zealand has always had an exploitative relationship with the Pacific Islands, especially in terms of using Pacific Island labour in times of employer labour shortages. The Government imports Pacific workers to help out NZ businesses and then ships them back home as soon as their immediately usefulness has been served. The latest example of this is the Recognised Seasonal Employment scheme which starts in April this year. A good analysis is published on the World Socialist Web Site, which says that rather than being benevolent, 'New Zealand is using its position as a minor imperial power in the region to cynically exploit desperately impoverished and oppressed Pacific peoples for its own economic ends'.

[political finance] Parliamentary Service to become Parliamentary Corporation?

The Parliamentary Service should be reorganised as the Parliamentary Corporation, according to a triennial independent review of Parliament. Essentially this means extending the neoliberal public sector reform that radically reshaped the NZ public service into the way that Parliament is run. The service should be run more like a business, says the report, being more market-led and customer-focused, and it should be run by a chief executive rather than just a general manager. Furthermore, the review says Parliament should be given an extra $2m a year to operate, which probably means even more public money for the parties in Parliament.

Religious tolerance vs respect

A National Statement on Religious Diversity is currently being drafted. Apparently some religious participants are demanding more than mere religious tolerance from NZ society - they want 'respect'. It's all a bit laughable really, but this is an area where free speech could be curtailed. I totally agree with Kiwiblog that 'tolerance' is the appropriate term, that no religion deserves automatic respect, and secularists need to keep on eye on such developments.

'Labour's tenure in government is a disgrace' - John Minto

John Minto has published another scathing opinion piece about the Labour Government's treatment of the poor in New Zealand. He says that Labour's response to the underclass debate has been 'an embarrassment', and asks 'where are Labour's policies to eliminate poverty?' but concluding that the party 'doesn't have the policies or the will to make real changes'.

Amongst other statistics to prove the extent of poverty in NZ, Minto points to the fact that 41% of Pacific Island children go to school in NZ without breakfast. Therefore:

Labour's tenure in government is a disgrace. The very Pacific people who so loyally and consistently vote Labour are the very ones slapped in the face by a party which puts the free-market at the centre of the economy instead of working New Zealanders and their families.

Minto suggests that Labour's policies amount to 'corporate welfare', and notes that under Labour business profits have gone up 54%, while the 'average wage increased by just 20.5% - and, in real terms, has decreased by 20% in 20 years'.

Labour is also called to account for Working for Families, which is not nearly as progressive as Labour makes out (especially since it only really helps those in stable employment) rather than low employment):

Working for Families is, in reality, a state subsidy for businesses that pay poverty wages. Both Labour and National prefer to subsidise wage levels with government funding rather than pressure companies to convert high profits to wage increases. And Labour's next move is to reduce company tax ... the low-paid come a distant last.

Underclass growing under Labour - poll

A majority of the population believes that the underclass has grown under the current Labour Government - 60% say it has grown under Labour, compared to 23% who think it has stayed the same, and only 9% think it has improved. This is the result of a TV One opinion poll of 1000 people.

Many people think Labour and National do not have the solutions to solving the problem: 45% think Labour did not have the right policies, and 47% did not think National had the right policies either.

An overwhelming 80% of NZ think there is an underclass problem - which hopefully should put an end to Labour's 'underclass denying'.

The unhealthy state of public health under Labour

The public health system is supposed to have improved under this Labour Government, but there continue to be strong signs that they're not. Here's a few recent examples:

It has been disclosed that more than 35,000 people were removed from elective surgery waiting lists last year in the Government's 'clean-up' of its hospital rationing system. Also, more than 13,000 patients were sent back to their GP, after earlier being promised treatment within six months - which is more than four times higher than four years previously. Furthermore, from 2001 to 2005, the number of patients receiving elective surgery has actually declined.

Costs of GP visits are likely to rise by more than $1 for most patients after a controversial ruling by district health boards.

Private health insurance continues to steadily grow. In the last quarter of 2006 the number of people covered by health insurance jumped 8400 to 1.37 million. New Zealanders obviously still do not have faith in the public system and are opting for private health where they can afford it.

The wisdom of Noel Gallagher

I'm often championing the relationship between arts and politics, as I like the music I listen to to be meaningful, and I think artists should be commenting on the world we live in. But of course there are lots of musicians who just shouldn't be political because they just say daft things, and they just end up as part of the morass of conformist irritating do-gooder liberal pop scene. I'm thinking here of Coldplay and U2 obviously.

A critique of this scene can be found epitomised in Oasis's Noel Gallagher, who isn't too political or sophisticated, but is scathing of conformist and do-gooding pop. There's a good profile on him on Spiked, which salutes him because 'in a world where rebellion has become just another gimmick, Gallagher’s antagonistic streak is refreshing'.

As you'll see in this article, Gallagher

• thinks Thom Yorke is po-faced and boring
• chastises 'arseholes' like Elton John and Robbie Williams for 'lock[ing] themselves off from humanity'
• thinks George Michael's attempts at social commentary are laughable
• criticises the British Labour Party for going into Iraq, but says 'I think the Labour Party’s crowning achievement is the death of politics. There’s nothing left to vote for.'
• criticises the miseralibilism of environmentalists: '‘Greens are fucking hippies with no place in the world'.
• says Live 8 was a naive waste of time.

The eco-Business Party

The Greens have made their most explicit statements that they could go into a coalition government with the National Party. While no such deals are being considered, according to the Sunday Star-Times, Jeanette Fitzsimons says they want to 'leave the door open' for a blue-green coalition. Co-leader Russel Norman was equally enthusiastic about a shift in coalition policy:

Norman said any decision "will be based on policy and principle, we will look at policies and compare Labour and National... and see which one is less bad". If National had better sustainability policies than Labour "it would be unprincipled not to consider them", he said.

Norman justifies the new approach to National by saying that there is little to differentiate the parties' environmental policies - which is quite correct. The problem for the Greens is that having committed to playing the parliamentary game and wanting to be in a government, they're becoming hostage to that slippery slope. The thinking is that 'if Labour aren't actually so bad, and National aren't that different from Labour, then maybe National aren't so bad after all'. It all just shows that the Greens aren't really a leftwing party at all. Ultimately their future lies in the centre of the political spectrum, being left on some things, and right on others.

Interestingly, the party's other news items this week included Fitzsimons admitting that Helen Clark's policy of a carbon-neutral NZ was actually more radical than the Greens had ever proposed (which shows just how moderate and timid the Greens really are, even on their own raison d'etre), and the Greens now supporting tax cuts, and wanting a $1 billion to go to business, to encourage those businesses that are reducing their carbon emissions or doing other eco-friends things. They really are becoming the "eco-business party".

The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality

The title says it all: "The Trouble with Diversity: How We Learned to Love Identity and Ignore Inequality". This is a new book recently published in America that makes a very strong argument against identity politics in favour of a more class-oriented leftwing project. A very good review of the book can be read in the US Observer newspaper online in part one and part two. [Read more below]

New Zealand's Complicity in the Invasion and Occupation of Timor Leste

A new book is launched today in Wellington: Negligent Neighbours: New Zealand's Complicity in the Invasion and Occupation of Timor Leste. Written by Maire Leadbeater, the book details how both National and Labour governments have provided private or tacit support for Indonesia's occupation of East Timor. The book says that New Zealand officials and ministers didn't want to rock the book with Indonesia, even in regard to the murder of a New Zealander in East Timor. NZ even told Indonesia that it would play down the invasion of the country.

Last weekend's Sunday Star-Times editorial (and news review) was scathing about NZ's role, and placed the governments' role in the context of Cold War 'realism':

Hard-headed diplomats in western capitals made a conscious decision to feed East Timor to the Indonesian beast. They did not want a small, easily sacrificed nation to upset an important ally in the Cold War. They feared Fretilin would take Timor into the communist camp, although Fretilin was actually a social democratic movement. They decided that independent Timor, in short, would be better dead than red.

The newspaper, along with Leadbeater, is especially critical of NZ diplomats who played a central part in East Timor's oppression because they didn't want to 'harm our own relations with Indonesia'. The newspaper says: 'Diplomats in particular have created an aura of expertise in order to protect their power. Foreign affairs, they would have us believe, is a high intellectual mystery open only to the specially-trained. In fact, this is nonsense. Thirty-one years after the first massacre, who has been proved right about East Timor? Not the highly-educated and well-informed officials who thought Timor could be quietly suppressed.'

National's new pale blue MPs

It's been interesting to see read the Herald's recent interviews with some new first-term National MPs, and to see how they orientate to National's push into the middle of the political spectrum under John Key. Rising stars like Jackie Blue are clearly 'on message', supporting the new moderation: 'I think [National] does need to be more centrist. I think John has already taken away all ambiguity that there was with the previous leadership and I think that's a good thing.'

Chris Finlayson stresses that the party needs to be 'liberal conservative', and says 'I really want to play my part to justly finish the historical Treaty settlements'.

Chester Borrows comes across as the most unlikely of National MPs, saying he wants 'to bring a sense of understanding about how life is at the bottom of the tree to National Party policy.' He sees that NZ society has changed and thinks National has to change likewise:

The party needs to grow the vote on the left and it's that group of voters in the middle that change governments. It's not a matter of selling your soul, it's a matter of being reasonable. If you look at where New Zealand's gone over the last 30 years, the Maori activists and the protesters we all used to cane have actually taken us to a place where we'd rather be, in many cases.

They all seem to like and be keen to build bridges with MPs from the minor parties to National's left.  Here are part of their responses to the question of which other MPs they have made friends with or respect.

Jackie Blue: 'There's only one person who would get that award and without any hesitation, I'd say Tariana Turia. I worked with her on the health committee and she is a woman of integrity ... she just blows me away, quite frankly.'

Chris Finlayson: 'I've really enjoyed working with Russell Fairbrother and Nandor Tanczos on the justice and law reform select committee. I really like Nandor Tanczos.'

Chester Borrows: 'I've got a healthy respect for Tariana Turia and Pita Sharples. They just ooze mana. I've got a healthy respect for Sue Bradford's intellect.... Nandor Tanczos has got a great grasp of social and criminal justice.'

Topsy-Turvy underclass politics

The topsy-turvy world of NZ politics in 2007 continues with Labour taking up the conservative position of being 'underclass deniers', and National making the most of highlighting the country's poverty. In terms of evidence against Labour's underclass denying, we had the KidsCan charity suggesting that 15,000 children are going hungry, then some analysis of Ministry of Health data that suggests the figure might be 80,000. Now one of the leading paediatricians at Auckland's Starship Children's Hospital says that the hospital alone admits more than 5000 malnourished under-2-year-olds each year.

It's great to see the Labour Government being held to account, but some of the heat should be applied to National as well. The best analysis I've seen of the issue so far is from John Minto, writing in the Press who says that it was the National Party's policies 'which drove working class New Zealanders into poverty in their hundreds of thousands'. He also makes the important point that we can no longer evaluate poverty levels through unemployment figures, and that 'Various combinations of low-paid, part-time, insecure, rostered, anti-social work are at the heart of social dysfunction'.

Eroding US legitimacy

Perceptions of the US's global role continue to decline according to a BBC World Service global survey. Over the last two years of the survey, the percentage of people who think the US is having a positive influence on the world has dropped from 40% to 36% to 29%. Furthermore, three out of four respondents disapprove of how the US has dealt with Iraq, and 68% think the US presence in the Middle East 'provokes more conflict than it prevents'.

Related to this, the Guardian has recently published an opinion piece that argues that because the US has had to drop it's failed "freedom agenda" in the marketing of its presence in the Middle East, they have taken up a marketing ploy of 'compulsively repeat[ing] the word "moderates" to describe their allies in the region' who are actually anything but moderate and are extremely dictatorial and reactionary. The author, Mai Yamani, argues that these states are politically useful to the US because they are not able to act independently - however, the more these regimes are sheltered by the US, the more their legitimacy erodes, and the more explosive the Middle East becomes.

Also, for an explanation of the deep-lying roots of the turmoil between Sunni and Shia Muslims, see this New Statesmen backgrounder and history of the conflict.

The Economist: 'Start thinking in terms of class'

The Economist is advocating to black political activists to 'stop thinking so much in terms of race, which is a diminishing problem, and start thinking in terms of class, which, alas, is a rapidly growing one.' Their advice flows from an analysis of politics in the US, whereby black America has never 'been in such a prime political position', with a very credible black presidential candidate, more black people in positions of power, a growing black middle class, but a serious black poverty issue. They say 'the huge gains that blacks have experienced since the Civil Rights Act have been unevenly distributed. A black middle class and a comfortable black establishment have emerged: about 1.1m blacks earn more than $100,000 a year. But a black underclass is also evident: people who are trapped in poverty by failed schools, broken families and endemic crime. Almost half of all black children are being raised by two parents, and a third of them are being brought up in poverty, compared with one-seventh of white children.'

The message of the Economist - which is undoubtedly correct - is that there needs to be a class approach based on enriching the socio-economic groups most suffering in US society:

This means focusing economic aid on the plight of the underclass—black, white or brown—not on blacks in general. Blacks will be disproportionate beneficiaries of this approach because they make up a disproportionate part of the underclass.

A similar approach and argument is needed in New Zealand.

[ePolitics] New political communications and class politics

Political parties in the west are finally starting to use the internet in significant and innovative ways. The use of such technology is clearly intended to find new ways to connect with a disengaged population who are no longer interested in the traditional party political processes. The latest example is Segolene Royal's new internet-based participatory way of mounting an election campaign - as reported in the Independent. Royal's website welcome's policy advice and messages, which she has 45 staff to sort though and synthesis into policy for Royal's presidential platform. Such a technique will allow Royal to partly bypass her more ideological Socialist Party and put forward a more centrist and non-socialist programme.

Jackie Ashley has also warned in the Guardian to: Beware the powerful when they hail the new democracy. Citing internet takeup figures for the UK, she reminds the reader that the internet 'has a class bias and is not the voice of the people'.

Immigration controls and impoverishment

Gary Younge of the Guardian has written a good article on immigration - The west persists in using race to decide who can cross its borders. Younge is therefore part of a growing number of commentators who are questioning why there are restraints on labour travelling between countries when ' Capital, we are told, must flow freely around the world to ensure international prosperity.' He points out the hypocrisy of the west in demanding that the former eastern bloc give freedom of movement to its citizens and then putting a new wall up to replace the old barrier to stop them leaving. He sees the elite in the west forcing both poverty and lack of mobility on the poor world:

Facing hunger and destitution, the poor move in search of work. But when they seek to gain access to the wealthiest countries - the very ones which created the rules that keep them poor - the doors are closed. Politicians desperate to galvanise popular support at home argue not for correcting the global inequalities in wealth but instead for stiffer immigration laws to keep the poor out. Since most, but by no means all, of these impoverished people are not white, racism almost inevitably informs and infects these immigration laws and the debate that surrounds them.

The price of a hardline against refugees

NoRightTurn has written a a critique of the Labour Government's asylum regime, saying that the Government seems quite happy to deport asylum seekers to places where they will face execution or torture. In particular:

they've deported Takshila, a Sri Lankan girl fleeing sexual abuse, and have tried to deport a Burmese democracy activist. And they're still trying to deport Thomas Yadegary, an Iranian Christian who will face murder or execution for apostasy if returned to Iran, and trying to send Ahmed Zaoui back to the people who tortured him and who have sentenced him to death for speaking out against Algeria's military regime.

The art of war

In recent years the art world have been fairly slow and uncertain about injecting political issues into their work that comment on the big issues of our time. Opposition to the war against Iraq was especially muted. One of the few British bands to show their opposition was Massive Attack, whose frontman, Robert Del Naja has recently spoken to the New Statesmen about how he was shocked that few musicians were willing to speak out: 'On the eve of the 2003 Iraq invasion, he and Damon Albarn tried to organise a group of similarly prominent musicians into an anti-war campaign, only to be greeted, he says, with a silence bordering on hostility.' [Read more below]

Monkey with razor slashes aid to pay for war

US President Bush is proposing to slash medical care for the poor and elderly by US$66bn to meet the soaring cost of the Iraq war, which has so far cost $500bn. The Iraq intervention will soon be more expensive than the 13-year Vietnam war, which in today's prices cost $614bn. Apparently the NY Times says 'that the cost of the war would have paid for universal healthcare in the US, nursery education for all three and four-year-olds in the country, immunisation for children round the world against a host of diseases, and still leave about half of the money left over'.

Meanwhile Hugo Chávez has said Bush is 'more dangerous than a monkey with a razor blade'! As well as labelling Bush as 'evil', Chávez said that Bush should be tried for war crimes and thrown in prison for the rest of his life.

[political finance] Electoral breach allegations unfounded

It's no surprise that the Electoral Commission has refuted the allegations of Nicky Hager and the Greens about National breaking the Electoral Act in terms of using trusts to fund political activity. It's hard to see why the complaint was made in the first place, as anyone with any basic understanding of the Electoral Act would realise that the use of trusts is very legal - even if the political party knows where the trusts get their money from. Labour and Greens will push for trusts to be more regulated under the Electoral Act, but they're mainly chasing shadows - or maybe just political points - as this is an area in which there will always be loopholes found to channel money anonymously to the parties.