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Advocacy for business by the BusinessNZ Network | |
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Election priorities for business |
Businesses want a stronger economy and better regulatory system, BusinessNZ CEO Kirk Hope says. The election priorities of BusinessNZ members show they want an environment that facilitates business, with resource management laws that help businesses develop, rather than holding them back; an education system delivering high quality literacy, numeracy and digital skills; and an employment system free from compulsion and risk such as in the Fair Pay Agreements system, Kirk Hope says. | | | |
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The latest BusinessNZ Planning Forecast shows modest growth for NZ until 2025, with international and domestic factors at play. “Economic growth the world over is expected to be modest, as countries and consumers start to focus inward,” BusinessNZ’s Catherine Beard said. “Inflationary pressures are still high despite a massive increase in net migration. More people entering the country will take some pressure off the labour market, but other stresses remain including the effects of higher interest rates on business and household budgets.” | | | |
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A select committee report on the Natural & Built Environment Bill came out this week, with hundreds of amendments. Critics of the Bill mention ambiguous wording and untested concepts that could prompt legal disputes, including “te Oranga o te Taiao” as the Bill’s purpose. The Bill, set to partially replace the Resource Management Act, will govern businesses’ ability to gain building and resource consents for development. The Govt intends to pass the legislation before the election, while National has said if elected it will repeal it by Christmas. | | | |
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Changing the focus of the Emissions Trading Scheme towards gross emissions would bring policy uncertainty and limit NZ’s ability to meet the net zero target by 2050, the BusinessNZ Energy Council says. Responding to the Climate Change Commission’s draft advice on the strategic direction for the ETS, BEC says the system is designed to be neutral about whether businesses make gross reductions or use e.g. forestry removals/offsets to achieve net reductions - and neutrality is a valuable feature of the current ETS that should be retained. | | | |
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The Reserve Bank has completed its 5-yearly review and this week clarified that ‘house price sustainability’ is not an operational objective of the Monetary Policy Committee remit. BusinessNZ advocates that the Reserve Bank’s remit should be tightly focused on price stability. Recently the RB dropped consideration of including ‘mitigating climate change’ and ‘fighting wealth and income inequality’ in its remit. BusinessNZ says this was sensible as these issues are tackled by other institutions, while no other institution has responsibility for price stability. RB objectives now cover only ‘price stability’ and ‘maximum sustainable employment.’
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Contractor policy has merit |
BusinessNZ agrees with a policy proposal by ACT to clarify in law the distinction between contractors and employees. “New flexible working routines and new technologies including app-based contracting mean a better legislative distinction is needed,” BusinessNZ’s Catherine Beard says. The distinction between contractors and employees has been the subject of much litigation including the recent Uber case. BusinessNZ is a member of the Tripartite Working Group on Better Protections for Contractors which recommends a change in law to get a clearer distinction between employees and contractors.
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AdvocacyUpdate is an update on recent activity & advocacy by the BusinessNZ Network | |
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