Amusingly, when my (now retired) colleague, Tim Hazeldine, wrote at article about the Foodstuffs - Countdown duopoly, Auckland University got threatened with defamation. The letter from Chapman Tripp somehow found its way onto the government's own Commerce Commission Website - you can read it at the end of this link:
https://comcom.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0016/362032/Tim-Hazeldine-submission-in-response-to-FSNI-and-FSSI-statement-of-unresolved-issues-12-August-2024.pdf
It says, "Foodstuffs, therefore, requests that the University amends the Article to remove these defamatory statements .. Yours sincerely, Justin Graham, Partner". Here's his bio:
https://chapmantripp.com/our-people/justin-graham/
It says "Justin lectures at the University of Auckland, at both undergraduate & postgraduate level, in corporate transactions, iwi governance & intellectual property law". Maybe you can get your head around how one can work for an outfit, like Auckland University during a part of the day, in the Law Department no less, then go walkies to your office a few hundred yards away & represent clients telling that same University to take down "defamatory statements". The University sent the letter to its own solicitors, bowed down, and dropped the article. We can't write more, for fear of rocking the boat, upsetting the apple cart, breaking the status quo, and riling NZ Big Business Incorporated.
Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.
It says, "Foodstuffs, therefore, requests that the University amends the Article to remove these defamatory statements .. Yours sincerely, Justin Graham, Partner". Here's his bio:
https://chapmantripp.com/our-people/justin-graham/
It says "Justin lectures at the University of Auckland, at both undergraduate & postgraduate level, in corporate transactions, iwi governance & intellectual property law". Maybe you can get your head around how one can work for an outfit, like Auckland University during a part of the day, in the Law Department no less, then go walkies to your office a few hundred yards away & represent clients telling that same University to take down "defamatory statements". The University sent the letter to its own solicitors, bowed down, and dropped the article. We can't write more, for fear of rocking the boat, upsetting the apple cart, breaking the status quo, and riling NZ Big Business Incorporated.
Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.
2 comments:
I think AU is indefensible here. Read on the FSU site that they were taking the case on, claiming not to be aware of it earlier. Wonder how it's going?
The ability to send a threatening letter from one of your employers to another one of your employers is not difficult to understand. After all we are talking about a lawyer, not exactly the most revered position in the world.
From my own dealings, there is a large amount of arrogance required to reach much above the low levels of the society they inhabit.
Post a Comment