Even Australia has an Independent Commission Against Corruption with wide powers.
### stuff.co.nz Sunday, 11 May 2014
Sunday Serve
The curse of the C-word
By Colin Espiner – Sunday Star-Times
OPINION: There are still a few words in the English language that are unacceptable in polite company. There’s the N-word, for example, as Jeremy Clarkson has found out to his cost in the UK just recently. The F-word is starting to become more acceptable, but it’s still a little strong for a family newspaper. In Parliament, you’re not allowed to use the H-word; for reasons too banal to go into here, MPs are forbidden to call each other hypocrites in the Debating Chamber (although liar, cheat, fraud and fool are all fine). Then there’s the C-word, still the last taboo in New Zealand at least. I refer, of course, to the word corruption, which, along with economic depression, is something we don’t have here, OK?
New Zealand just seems to hope it doesn’t happen here.
But corruption is a slippery, insidious disease that is difficult sometimes to diagnose or even recognise. It can become so endemic that participants may not even identify their behaviour as corrupt or even wrong. Although there are many definitions of corruption, the one I think best sums it up is “the illegitimate use of public power to benefit a private interest”. And given political events of the past few weeks, it is a term that has been bandied about quite a bit.
Read more
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Last week, the ODT used the word fraud in the same ‘breath’ as Forsyth Barr Stadium (see Saturday’s In Brief report of Bev Butler’s submission to the DCC Annual Plan hearings).
Related Posts and Comments:
9.5.14 DCC Draft Annual Plan 2014/15 Submission by Bev Butler
11.5.14 Stadium: DCC proposes extra funds for stadium debt repayment
Good Read:
9.5.14 Stuff (Fairfax News) Stadium could cost Dunedin ratepayers millions
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr
What if? Dunedin... 