“Tempus Fugit” – time flies – is the old Latin inscription often found on public clocks from the time before electronics put clocks everywhere. And the dump last week of an extraordinary number of important policies by the Government suggest that, if it’s not flying, then the Government’s election clock is ticking faster.

Two major pieces of employment legislation (the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill and the Holidays Act revision), a new workplace superannuation scheme, a “tuned-up” RMA, a strategy for the taxpayer-owned rail network, and pronouncements on the certainty of the weather were delivered, virtually without pause.

It might be churlish to question whether all this was just coincidence. Too bad if parliamentarians and the media had trouble in digesting any element of it in the response time available before the next delivery. And for most Kiwis, there were more interesting things to think about. Alas, business doesn’t have that luxury. Every piece of last week’s dump matters to individual businesses and the economy they operate in. Business just got more complex and more expensive.

Not even recent pronouncements on climate change suggest that the sky will fall in – not yet anyway. But it is no more credible to accept that the interventions and policy directions announced last week are minor tweaking that deserve little further consideration and are no cause for concern. The Holidays Bill would leave unchanged what is effectively a significant statutory increase in remuneration for all employees by preventing employers from paying more to those working than those who are not. Its mate, the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill, will fundamentally change the balance of core employment legislation, the ERA, by giving primacy to unions in the workplace, and by fast tracking multi-employer collectives. It will be interesting to see what use the unions make of their new influence in the short term.

These changes are also the context in which proposals for workplace superannuation need to be considered. Teetering on the edge of compulsion – where might it go in any second stage? – the only option possible from the terms of reference given to the review group is now open for public debate for a little over a month. What is the rush when either other options or the many issues yet to have clear answers need wide public input?

Business should take a proprietary interest in what happens to the rail track network. Not only are they part owners, they should know how much their future liability might be, and what share of this taxpayers, ratepayers or users should pay.

The RMA “tune-up” proposals as published are both cautious and intended for presentation. The devil will be in the detail. Business will need clear answers on much of the package when available: what is, for example, “co-management”, what real speed for any infrastructure fast track?

Nor can business afford to overlook the Kyoto Protocol. Ministers of Transport used to have formal responsibility for the Met. Service. That usually didn’t extend to making weather forecasts. Last Wednesday’s Dominion Post revealed that the current Minister was not similarly constrained. Whatever the accuracy of Mr Hodgson’s prediction that extreme weather would last for “decades and decades”, the relevant question remains what the Kyoto Protocol would do about it and at what cost. Of course, the enormous developing economies of Brazil, China and India are unconstrained by Kyoto. And closer to home, what will New Zealand taxpayers get for the $9 – $14 billion Kyoto obligations will cost them over the next 20 years?

For business, time not only flies, it’s money. Less haste and more answers might be better value.

Contact:

Phone:

Email: