| |
| |
Advocacy for business by the BusinessNZ Network | |
| |
There is much to celebrate in NZ's environment for business. Work has begun on a Regulatory Standards Bill to improve the quality of regulation on the business sector - something our members have been seeking for a long time. And the recent agreement across political parties on infrastructure provision is fantastic news for business. We're also buoyed by the latest move towards profiting from NZ's amazing energy resources. Welcome to the latest updates and analysis from the BusinessNZ team. Tēnā koutou katoa! Katherine Rich Chief Executive | | | |
| |
Better regulatory oversight |
BusinessNZ endorses the start of work towards a proposed Regulatory Standards Bill. The Bill's sponsor Hon David Seymour says the intention is to bring the same level of discipline to regulation that the Public Finance Act brings to public spending. BusinessNZ agrees with this aim, having consistently called for a regulatory responsibility law to help restrain the growth of unnecessary or poor-quality regulations, in response to long-time feedback from members wanting action on regulations that hold back productivity, profitability and wage growth. | | | |
| |
BusinessNZ congratulates the National, Labour and ACT parties for their agreement on public private partnerships. "Enduring infrastructure assets need to be built on the basis of consensus across parties, and the fact that NZ's updated PPP framework has the endorsement of three major Parliamentary parties is extremely good news," CEO Katherine Rich said. The New Zealand PPP Framework Blueprint for Future Transactions sets out NZ's future approach to PPP infrastructure projects, based on learnings from past projects, with updated requirements relating to PPP risk management and performance. | | | |
| |
An OECD paper Revamping Competition in NZ says NZ suffers from acute market concentration in some areas, bringing high prices and low innovation. It says central and local govt own an usually high share of network companies, and recommends greater privatisation of SOEs and divesting local govt ownership of port assets, noting that mixed-ownership ports in NZ are more profitable. The paper suggests investigating barriers to competition in sectors including dairy, retail electricity, ports, airports, airlines and retail financial services. | | | |
| |
More than 40 actions and policy changes benefiting small businesses have been made this year, according to a BusinessNZ analysis of Government support for SMEs. The changes relate to sectors including agriculture, building and construction, forestry and marine farming, and include policy changes relating to seasonal employment issues, immigration, cyber protection and mental health. BusinessNZ will continue to track the performance of the policy environment affecting small businesses. | | | |
| |
New energy source investigated |
The BusinessNZ Energy Council (BEC) welcomes the Govt's planned $60m investment to investigate supercritical geothermal energy under the Taupo volcanic zone. (The energy comes from heat deep within the earth's magma superheating groundwater that has percolated down through the earth, creating a fluid of supercritical temperature and pressure.) BEC's Tina Schirr says it could be major clean and renewable resource for NZ's energy future: "This investment could bring a significant source of energy to benefit Kiwis' living standards, along with a potential revenue stream benefiting the NZ economy." | | | |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
AdvocacyUpdate is an update on recent activity & advocacy by the BusinessNZ Network | |
| |
| |
| |
.png)
