Roger Award

The Roger Award For The Worst Transnational Corporation Operating in New Zealand was an annual media campaign run since 1997 by two activist organisations, Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa and GATT Watchdog. The winners were chosen by a group of academics, activists, businesspeople and trade unionists.[1]

The Roger Award.

In April 2018 it was announced the 2016 Roger Award would be the final award, due to a declining number of nominations.[2]

Background

The awards bear the name of former New Zealand Finance Minister Sir Roger Douglas, who introduced far reaching market-oriented reforms in the 1980s (also taken into account during the naming decision were New Zealand Business Roundtable director Roger Kerr, the verb "to roger", and the term "Jolly Roger").[3][4] These changes, reinforced by successor Ruth Richardson in the 1990s, made the country's economy one of the most open in the world. Through this period, the role and profile of multinational companies increased. The privatisation of Tranz Rail and Telecom New Zealand, companies that have won multiple Roger Awards, remain particularly controversial - since being given their first awards, they have been re-nationalised and unbundled respectively.

The Roger Award has been used as the model for similar campaigns overseas.

Criteria

The winner was selected by evaluation of the judges made on four criteria, "Economic dominance"; "Impact on people"; "Environmental damage and abuse of animals"; and "Political interference". This last criteria was judged on the basis of whether the nominee is "running an ideological crusade".

Having "won" on three occasions, Tranz Rail was inducted into the 'Hall of Shame' in 2003. It has ceased to exist having been absorbed by Toll NZ, a two-time nominee, and subsequently nationalised as KiwiRail by the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand. Telecom New Zealand was nominated each year since 1997, and has since been succeeded by Chorus Limited and Spark New Zealand.

Past winners

Year	Winner	Runners Up	Other Finalists	Special Awards
1997	Tranz Rail, New Zealand's largest rail operator [5]	Independent Newspapers Limited (INL), Coeur Gold	Telecom New Zealand, Comalco, Westpac, Juken Nissho, Lion Nathan, Brierley Investments Limited
1998	Monsanto Company, a US-based manufacturer of agricultural products [6]
1999	TransAlta , a Canadian power company [7][8]
2000	Tranz Rail [9]
2001	Carter Holt Harvey, a timber company [10][11]
2002	Tranz Rail [12][13]			Tranz Rail becomes the first occupant of the Hall of Shame [14]
2003	Juken Nissho, a timber company [15]
2004	Telecom New Zealand, New Zealand's largest telco [16]
2005	Bank of New Zealand and Westpac, banks[17][18]
2006	Progressive Enterprises, the largest supermarket operator in New Zealand[19][20]	Runner-up: Telecom New Zealand	Other finalists: Toll NZ, ANZ Bank, British American Tobacco, Contact Energy, ABB
2007	Telecom New Zealand [21]	Joint runners-up: British American Tobacco and Spotless	Other finalists: GlaxoSmithKline, ANZ Bank, APN News & Media, Independent Liquor, Pike River Coal
2008	British American Tobacco [22][23][24]	Runner-up: Rio Tinto NZ	Other finalists: ANZ Bank, Contact Energy, GlaxoSmithKline, Infratil, McDonald's, Telecom New Zealand	Business New Zealand awarded inaugural Accomplice Award
2009	ANZ Bank [25][26][27]	Runner-up: Rio Tinto NZ	Other finalists: BNZ, Infratil, Newmont, Rymans, Telecom New Zealand, Transpacific and Westpac.	Accomplice Award: Auckland City Council and its officials
2010	Warner Brothers [28]		Finalists: BUPA, Imperial Tobacco, Vodafone, Warner Brothers and Westpac
2011	Rio Tinto Alcan NZ Ltd [29][30]	Oceania, Sajo Oyang Corporation and Westpac	Other finalists: Adidas, Newmont Waihi Gold, Skycity Entertainment Group and Telecom New Zealand	Accomplice Award: the New Zealand Government (in its own right and accompanying both Sajo Oyang and Telecom).
2012	Taejin Fisheries [31]	Runners-up: Rio Tinto Alcan NZ Ltd, King Salmon	Finalists: The four Australian-owned banks collectively (ANZ, ASB, BNZ & Westpac), Insurance Australia Group, Newmont Waihi Gold, Taejin Fisheries Co. Ltd, and Vodafone.	Accomplice Award: The New Zealand Government, United Fisheries People's Choice Award: British American Tobacco
2013	Rio Tinto[32]	Sky City Casino, Chorus	Finalists: ANZ, Chorus, IAG Insurance Group, Imperial Tobacco, Rio Tinto, Sky City Casino and Talent 2.	There were several nominations for the Accomplice Award, all for the Government
2014	ANZ Bank[33]	IAG/State Insurance	Finalists: ANZ Bank, British American Tobacco NZ, Coca-Cola Amatil, IAG/State Insurance, PGG Wrightson, and Rio Tinto.[34]	Food & Grocery Council
2015	IAG/State Insurance[35]	Serco	Bunnings Warehouse, Westpac, MediaWorks New Zealand, Apple Inc.
2016	Youi[36]	IAG/State Insurance	Uber

References

1. Richards, Chris (June 2004). "Interview about: the roger award". New Internationalist. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
2. "Over And Out". CAFCA.
3. Choudry, Aziz (2001-05-02). "NEW ZEALAND: Battling to derail the TNCs". Green Left Weekly. Archived from the original on 2012-08-02. Retrieved 2008-05-25.
4. Choudry, Aziz (April 2001). "Battling to derail the TNCs in New Zealand". Retrieved 2008-05-25.
5. "Roger Award for 1997". Watchdog. 87. June 1998. Archived from the original on 2014-02-23 – via Scribd.
6. "Roger Award for 1998". Watchdog. 91. August 1999 – via Scribd.
7. "TransAlta Wins 1999 Roger Award". CAFCA. December 1999.
8. "Roger Award for 1999: Judges Report". CAFCA. December 1999.
9. "Roger Award for 2000: Judges' Statement and Report" (PDF). CAFCA. April 2001.
10. "Roger Award for 2001: Judges' Statement". CAFCA. February 2002.
11. "Roger Award for 2001: Judges' Report" (PDF). CAFCA. April 2002.
12. "Roger Award for 2002: Judges' Statement". CAFCA. January 2003.
13. "Roger Award for 2002: Judges' Report" (PDF). CAFCA. January 2003.
14. "Tranz Rail Shunted into Hall of Shame". CAFCA. June 2003.
15. "Roger Award for 2003: Judges' Statement and Report" (PDF). CAFCA. January 2004.
16. "Roger Award for 2004: Judges' Statement and Report" (PDF). CAFCA. April 2005.
17. "2005 Roger Award Finalists Chosen". Scoop Independent News.
18. "Roger Award for 2005: Judges' Statement and Report" (PDF). CAFCA. March 2006.
19. "2006 Roger Award Finalists Chosen". Scoop Independent News.
20. "Roger Award for 2006: Judges' Statement and Report" (PDF). CAFCA. February 2007.
21. "Roger Award for 2007: Judges' Statement and Report" (PDF). CAFCA. February 2008.
22. "Roger Award for 2008: Judges' Statement and Report" (PDF). CAFCA. March 2009.
23. "Roger Awards: British American Tobacco NZ Ltd Wins". Scoop Independent News.
24. And the Roger Award for 2008 Goes To Stuff.co.nz: Frontline by John Minto
25. "Roger Award for 2009: Judges' Statement and Report" (PDF). CAFCA. March 2010.
26. "Roger Award 2009 Announcement" (PDF). CAFCA. 2010-03-11.
27. ANZ Wins Roger Award for 2009 indymedia.org.nz, March 2010
28. "Roger Award for 2010: Judges' Statement and Report" (PDF). CAFCA.
29. "Roger Award for 2011: Judges' Statement and Report" (PDF). CAFCA. April 2012.
30. "2011 Roger Awards". Scoop Independent News. 21 April 2012.
31. "Roger Award for 2012: Judges' Statement and Report" (PDF). CAFCA. 1 May 2013.
32. "Rio Tinto Wins 2013 Roger, Sky City Casino 2nd, Chorus 3rd". Scoop Independent News. 21 April 2014.
33. "ANZ Wins 2014 Roger Award". Scoop Independent News. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
34. "2014 Roger Award Finalists Named". Scoop Independent News. Retrieved 24 May 2015.
35. "IAG/State Insurance Wins 2015 Roger Award". Scoop Independent News.
36. "YOUI Wins 2016 Roger Award". Scoop Independent News. 2017-04-10.

External links

• CAFCA - Roger Awards