Connell Brian: Industry New Zealand and Trade New Zealand Integration Bill — First Reading 
Connell Brian: Industry New Zealand and Trade New Zealand Integration Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:607;Page:4358] 
BRIAN CONNELL (NZ National—Rakaia) 
: 
 I start my contribution to this debate by saying that National approves of the idea of bringing Trade New Zealand and Industry New Zealand together as one entity. We support it because of the significant benefits that should flow through shrinkage of bureaucracy. Ideally we should get economies of scale bringing about significant resource savings in time and in money. The problem though is that this is not enough. I accept that it is a step in the right direction but in terms of helping business in New Zealand it is not helpful. In fact it is about as helpful as the Greens’ economic policy. 
Why will this bill not make a difference? The answer is very simple. It does not address the issues. It is quite plain that if Jim Anderton stopped talking to journos seeking interviews and talking himself up he would start listening to business owners just as my party has been doing. Talking and listening is what National members have done and this is what we have heard: all the businesses we have talked to say that they have been shackled and hobbled by rising compliance costs and anti-business legislation. How can we compete nationally and internationally while this Government is jacking up fixed costs at every turn? If Jim Anderton were serious about regional development he would do something about compliance costs. I dare say that he could also help by resigning. 
The costs of doing business in this country are rising steadily and no one in the Government seems to understand just what damage that is doing to us. We will not attract investment. In fact we will scare it away. In the last year alone medium-sized businesses in this country saw their compliance costs go up by $43000. That is a helluva lot of money. For the benefit of members opposite I want to explain a simple concept. A rough expense-to-income ratio in business is 1:7 which essentially means that for every dollar a business spends it has to make $7 just to stand still. It is a simple concept. If members work it through that means that a medium-sized business in this country has to turn over approximately $300000 just to stay in the same position. I understand of course that that ratio fluctuates a little bit depending on the debt-to-equity ratios but no one can deny that it is an astounding figure. But what I truly find amazing is that Jim Anderton does not seem to give a damn. We have all heard him blathering about Sovereign Yachts and how well business in this country is doing but he never seems to grasp the real issues. Talk is cheap but when the rubber hits the road he and his Government are found wanting. As Mr Carter pointed out the Government is tweaking the bureaucracy of Trade New Zealand and Industry New Zealand while business confidence is plummeting—that was well put by my colleague. I would add the fact that it was Nero who fiddled while Rome burned. 
This Government claims that it cares about regional development yet when we talk to regional businesses they say that the thing holding them back more than anything else in this country is the Resource Management Act. Across the nation across businesses costs have skyrocketed under that Act. That type of foolishness which the Ministry of Economic Development should be addressing is exactly why the Industry New Zealand and Trade New Zealand Integration Bill will not make any real difference. What is the Government’s response to businesses concerned about the Resource Management Act? Its response is to make it more bureaucratic and costly. These sorts of things are being put forward in the bill being legislated today. Labour has rejected direct referral to the Environment Court for major projects rejected landowners’ rights to be consulted over wahi tapu and significant natural areas and introduced legal aid for objecting. I could go on but I think that the House is getting my drift. Until we have someone with a bit of business acumen in the driving seat we will not see any changes and our economy now that the golden weather has passed will just get sicker. The Industry New Zealand and Trade New Zealand Integration Bill does not address the core problems. If we want to increase foreign investment and stronger local companies we have to work for it. The new structure will be better than the old I grant but it needs to be staffed by people who know how to turn a buck and understand the way business works. We cannot simply rely on company structures and I see that as a fundamental flaw in this bill. 
This Government has maintained its silence on key topics plaguing business. It has ignored questions such as why our businesses cannot have certainty over the supply of electricity. Incidentally that is a question that my colleague Gerry Brownlee had blocked by this Government when he tried to bring an inquiry into the electricity disasters facing this country. That is a topic our industries want to see addressed. They cannot afford to be sidelined simply because this Government finds it embarrassing. That is the distinction between governance and politics. Even the Government’s union buddies are telling the Government to lift its act around electricity because it is doing this country immense damage. The other factors that are threatening business—which Jim Anderton’s trade organisations have maintained a blissful silence over—include the Employment Relations Act the Holidays Act and the Health and Safety in Employment Amendment Act. 
Those were disasters for business and they have scared the hell out of investors. Yet neither of those organisations has uttered a word of warning and this bill will not do anything to change that. 
The Government shows no sign of holding back on its anti-business assault. Jim Anderton is to business in my view what George Bush is to Iraq—a relentless and implacable foe. Every time National members and our colleagues in ACT pointed out the dangers of the Local Government Bill for example we were howled down as scaremongering. We now know that Jim Anderton’s own officials at the Ministry of Economic Development warned him. I quote to the House an article in the  
National Business Review 
: “‘At their worst these proposals have the potential to give wider powers for local government without any constraints because of the weakness of the accountability framework and the inability of the community to clearly signal their preferences’ a paper from the Ministry of Economic Development warned ministers in April. ‘The result is potentially higher taxes and other charges for the community including business; a broadening of the scope of local government activity into areas where there are only tenuous links to overall community outcomes and therefore significant potential for economic costs and no improvement in regulatory management.’” Even the Ministry of Economic Development saw this as a problem yet Jim Anderton chose to just ignore it. Business must feel free of arbitrary Government interference driven by political considerations. This Government’s view of business as a giant pocket in which we can continually trawl must stop. Businesses cannot afford it and they are deeply concerned. They have no confidence in what the Government is proposing under its economic platform. This bill confronts none of those issues yet it is exactly the time to do so. We have reached the crisis point. We have frittered away incredible opportunities over the last 2 years and now it is time to act.