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Roger Awards

Entry 257, on 2005-12-01 at 17:05:49 (Rating 4, News)

In the weekend I indulged in a short debate regarding Telecom, New Zealand's major telecommunications company (and a virtual monopoly here). I suggested that Telecom didn't provide high quality services, shipped too much profit overseas, and failed to re-invest in the equipment the country needs. My opposition basically said: they are a private company and can do anything they want, if you don't like it use a different company. Of course, this is difficult in the case of a monopoly, but even where competition exists there are often arrangements in place for the mutual benefit of the so-called competitors.

Shortly afterwards I was delighted to see that Telecom have again been nominated for a "Roger Award" (presumably named after Roger Douglas, the architect of the new-right reforms of the 80s). These are awarded annually to the worst trans-national company in New Zealand. Wow, so many candidates! Apparently, Telecom is a regular contender, in fact it has been a finalist every year the award has been given (since 1997) but first won last year.

The award is judged in several categories, including the following: monopoly, profiteering, tax dodging, unemployment, political interference, and environmental damage. Of course, I would add to this "providing sub-standard service, while flooding the country with propaganda in the form of advertising, and sending the money which should be invested back into improvements in service to foreign shareholders.

The other finalists are: Westpac, Toll, BNZ, Comalco, Merck Sharp and Dohme, and British American Tobacco. It must be tempting to pick on the real "bad guy" - the tobacco company - but I would still rate Telecom highly (or should I say lowly) in this illustrious mix of corporate thieves!

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