Support for small businesses battered by floods and Cyclone Gabrielle was the key concern at BusinessNZ’s annual Back to Business event in Wellington this week. BusinessNZ CEO Kirk Hope urged the gathering including major business representatives to consider helping and supporting small businesses damaged by the disasters. “BusinessNZ is engaged with our members, industries, government, and affected communities, working on how we can pull together and assist businesses, people and Government agencies operating in the disaster-hit areas.”

Monetary policy is principally about maintaining price stability, but that’s hard to do if the Reserve Bank has too many, or potentially conflicting, objectives. The decision to drop consideration of 'mitigating climate change' and 'fighting wealth and income inequality' from the RB Remit is sensible, BusinessNZ says, as these issues are better tackled by other institutions. The RB objective of maximum employment should be dropped for the same reason, BusinessNZ says; no other institution has the objective of price stability, and the Reserve Bank should be allowed to focus on this solely.

BusinessNZ this week submitted to select committee on two of three Bills to be enacted to replace the Resource Management Act, noting there were substantial concerns that the Natural and Built Environment Bill and Spatial Planning Bill would not materially improve resource management decision-making. The Bills contain vague, undefined terms, and place environmental protection above development needs which could continue to make resource decision-making very uncertain, BusinessNZ's submission said.

The BusinessNZ Energy Council is concerned Crown Minerals Act changes will send a strong anti-mining signal. The Crown Minerals Amendment Bill would change the Act’s purpose from ‘promoting’ mining of Crown-owned minerals to ‘managing’ it. But decarbonising our economy requires access to many critical minerals, and minerals are essential for NZ's living standards, BEC says: “The Crown’s right to all minerals on Crown land is based on mining being for the benefit of all NZers, and ‘promoting’ is therefore more appropriate.”

BusinessNZ members have responded to the Review into the Future for Local Government, recommending many improvements to the way local government operates, including more cost-benefit transparency in decision-making, better analysis of the impact on businesses of local government regulation, and more focus on the ‘beneficiary pays’ approach to determining payment for local government services. A more realistic approach to local government revenue streams is needed, BusinessNZ says.