Former New Zealand Government Statistician Len Cook raises serious concerns about the Data and Statistics Bill quietly working its way through Parliament

The May13th passing of the Protected Disclosures (Protection of Whistleblowers) Act 2022 bolsters protection for whistleblowers in New Zealand workplaces, across the public and private sectors. The Te Kawa Mataaho summarises the changes to the Act. Also see link to extensive interview with our Director Debbie Gee on Mediawatch.

Applications are now being accepted for the second annual Transparency International NZ Dame Suzanne Snively Scholarship at Victoria University Wellington.

Amidst recent visits from foreign ministers, Transparency International chapters in the Pacific urge governments to use these opportunities to implement the policies outlined in the 2020 Teieniwa Vision, which highlights the importance of strong leadership and political will to defeat corruption.

The Banking Ombudsman has updated their complaints dashboard with the publication of data from the first three months of 2022. Complaints fell markedly from the late 2021 spike. The high proportion of complaints against ANZ is concerning.

It is with regret we note the sudden death of Mel Smith. Mel was on the Board of Transparency International New Zealand for several years and became our Patron in 2007.

An update from Integrity Fiji discusses the challenges lack of good data presents to their anti-corruption work. It highlights their recent accomplishments in the face of the challenges.

Julie Read has quietly left the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) after nine years at the helm. TINZ wishes to acknowledge the major contribution she made to shedding light on corruption in New Zealand and on showing how to effectively prosecute perpetrators.

Social media platforms fail to act on 89% of anti-Muslim and Islamaphobia hate content. Social media simillarly fail on climate change and COVID-19 misinformation, and on antisemitism, racist, and misogynistic content. Join the Global Summit to Address Online Harms and Misinformation conversation with legislators, academics, regulators and activists on building a better, safer and fairer Internet.

Given the dominance of COVID-19 in government activity over the last two years, it is clear that procurement for covid response and recovery has been conducted almost entirely outside of public scrutiny.

The public’s trust in Intelligence is precarious. Often collection of information is criticised for potential invasion of privacy but Intelligence done well supports good policy development and successful operational activity. Where this occurs, the role of intelligence goes unnoticed. Competence of intelligence is also indicated in the absence of failure.

Transparency International Australia is launching a new tool to identify the loopholes that enable corruption to thrive in the infrastructure sector in the Asia-Pacific region.