Who will assume the mantle of 'Legend of New Zealand' now that Sir Ed has gone?

Posted Fri, 25/01/2008 - 12:00am by admin

Published in the Dominion Post on of 25 January 2008

The death of Sir Edmund Hillary raises an important question - whom do we now admire, trust and respect the most?

Prime Minister Helen Clark got it right when she said that our greatest hero was gone. It's a prosaic and awkward question, but who is our next greatest hero after Sir Ed? And why?

There are not a lot of outstandingly obvious candidates, just as few, if any, rivaled Sir Ed's status when he was alive.

There are a group of aging sportspeople, mostly male, and almost all white. There's some ageing politicians, a few of whom may be on the verge of statesmanship status. And there is a collection of currently popular stars, and some quiet achievers. There is no one whose status is so high, whose reputation so strong that they can take the mantle of "Legend of New Zealand" that Sir Edmund put down.

What are the qualities that make up reputation in a New Zealand context? First, the person's achievements have to be significant in an activity of importance to New Zealanders. That puts a lot of sports people in the frame, but probably puts All Blacks, cricketers, and Silver Ferns above the rest, if sporting achievement alone is considered.

Tender commission row deepens

Posted Fri, 14/12/2007 - 12:00am by admin

Published in the National Business Review of 14 December 2007

Another tender for survey research work has been withdrawn from the government's compulsory tendering system in the wake of continuing controversy over a company seeking to extract commission for handling bids for work offered by government agencies.

The Ministry of Economic Development (MED) had previously told the firm, The Research Broker, to cease immediately making statements that the Ministry of Economic Development or GETS has approved or endorsed their tender process. The firm seeks ten percent commission from the successful bidder.

The mandatory rules of the Government Electronic Tendering System (GETS) say that "Departments must receive, open and evaluate all tenders under procedures that guarantee the fairness and impartiality of the procurement process.

This might not rule out having evaluations of tenders undertaken by third parties, but the rules of GETS do no make any provision for the payment of commissions for procurement and assessment of tenders.

Departments are required to post tender notices on GETS for contracts for goods and services worth over $100,000 (over $10million for construction services).

A tender for survey research offered by the Department of Labour has now been pulled from the GETS website. Two other tenders for research from the Chief Electoral Office of the Department of Justice and from the Auditor General were withdrawn previously.

Broker in GETS system told to back off.

Posted Fri, 07/12/2007 - 12:00am by admin

Published in the National Business Review of 7 December 2007

An attempt to extract a ten percent brokerage fee from businesses bidding for market research work through the government's GETS system has raised the ire of both officials and suppliers.

The Ministry of Economic Development has told the firm, The Research Broker, to cease immediately making statements that the Ministry of Economic Development or GETS has approved or endorsed their tender process.

Two contracts involving The Research Broker were withdrawn from the GETS system this week.

A complaint about the firm has been lodged with the Market Research Society alleging a breach of its code of ethics.

One of the two withdrawn tenders related to a survey of voters and non voters commissioned by the Chief Electoral Office. The other tender was from the Office of the Auditor General and sought expressions of interest in conducting the office's annual client survey.

In both cases the tender documents state that The Research Broker will evaluate the tenders.

The documents direct enquiries to that firm and say that "the successful provider will need to have signed the research broker Service Agreement."

Growth Group wants sound currency

Posted Fri, 30/11/2007 - 12:00am by admin

Published in the National Business Review of 30 November 2007

The pro growth lobby group, Foundation for Economic Growth, is pushing a sound currency as one of the basic elements of a national growth strategy.

The Foundation's Chief Executive Phil Scott says governments shouldn't be allowed to get away with just printing money.

"Currencies these days are just paper backed by government promises," he said.

The group (formerly called Parties for Growth) is promoting a pro growth message through advertisements in newspapers in Auckland and Wellington.

The ads show a graph of New Zealand's economic living standards declining from third in the world in 1950 to 38th spot currently. This is accompanied by the message of smaller government, lower taxes and more individual freedom.

"We are trying to get the population to think about the factors that cause growth and why we are not getting it at the moment. We provide cast iron examples of how growth can be obtained and these are on our website.

"What do other countries do? They have less government, lower taxes, regulatory reform and a sound currency," Mr Scott said.

While the group sees paper currencies as inherently risky, it is not seeking a return to metal backed currencies or the old "gold standard".

Export year boosts domestic lobbyists

Posted Fri, 16/11/2007 - 12:00am by admin

Published in the National Business Review of 16 November 2007

The government's showcase programme, Export Year 07 winds up with a breakfast in Auckland this morning where a new 'platform' document on future government business partnerships for exporting will be launched.

The export year programme has $6m of government funding (plus private sector spending) but it is not subject to outcome measures. Officials and business leaders are saying it was a success with improved government business relations one of the main gains.

"We are having a better conversation with NZTE now than we were at the start of the year," Business New Zealand Chief Executive Phil O'Reilly, a member of the Reference Group formed to advise on the Export Year programme said this week.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade Deputy Secretary Derek Leask said officials were "reasonably pleased" with what had happened.

Achieving a specific boost in the value of exports had been rejected as a goal because it was unachievable in one year, although the programme had set up a range of activity based KPIs to measure its impact.

The platform document records "the common understandings" between government and business for further export activities over the next three to five years.

It addresses issues of exporting and global competitiveness and is "strategic and aspirational," the pair said.

Business raises stakes on climate change

Posted Fri, 09/11/2007 - 12:00am by admin

Published in the National Business Review of 9 November 2007

Business interests are divided over whether it is possible to reverse the government's policy on climate change and on whether it is therefore better to seek to slow down its implementation.

A report from economic advisors, Castalia, has called for a drastic rethink of emissions trading policy while an earlier report from the New Zealand Institute sought to slow down its implementation.

New Zealand is unique in seeking to develop an emissions trading scheme that covers all sectors of the economy and all six greenhouse gases and to have this largely in place by 2013.

The Castalia report was paid for by the Greenhouse Coalition, an alliance of energy intensive users. Spokesperson Catherine Beard said there had been a sea change in business attitudes just recently.

"The reaction to the government's announcement of its emissions policy was rather muted, but our businesses later saw that some of the key things they were seeking just weren't there."

Attitudes had hardened since the government's initial announcement on 20 September, and there was now discussion about whether it was possible to reverse rather than just revise the government's policy.

The Greenhouse Coalition believed the proposed emissions trading scheme "was just bad policy", Ms Beard said.

Housing PPP exposes government hypocrisy

Posted Fri, 02/11/2007 - 12:00am by admin

Published in the National Business Review of 02 November 2007

Labour's attitude to public private partnerships has been exposed as hypocritical amid revelations that the government has expanded considerably a nine year old scheme in housing.

National is trying to use this and recent statements from cabinet ministers to attack the government's reluctance to consider such partnerships to build infrastructure.

In the housing scheme, private investors owning suitable rental properties lease them to Housing New Zealand, which then rents the houses to its clients. This extends the supply of affordable rental housing while giving landlords a secure income stream.

National MP Murray McCully started the scheme when he was the Minister of Housing in the mid 1990s. The number of properties in the scheme has more than trebled rising from 846 in June 1998 to 2,883 properties currently.

This is four per cent of Housing New Zealand Corporation's rental stock, and the Corporation intends to continue to use home leases as a tool for providing state housing, a spokesman said.

In the 2002/03 period, the Labour led government showed some interest in public private partnerships (PPPs), but a Treasury study published in 2006 is sceptical about the benefits.

Manufacturers gain online marketplace

Posted Fri, 02/11/2007 - 12:00am by admin

MarketplaceNZ.com is free service for companies around the country.

Published in the National Business Review of 02 November 2007

A new online marketplace, specifically for manufacturers to showcase their wares has attracted just 11 participants so far but organisers are hoping the promise of both local and overseas eyeballs will win over more industry players.

The Wellington based MarketplaceNZ.com initiative is backed by the region's Industry Development Centre (IDC) but is open to all New Zealand manufacturers.

The launch gives Kiwi manufacturers a virtual storefront to showcase their business to the world, the Centre's Director Wolf Marbach said.

"It aims to make finding the right product or service from a local manufacturer easier," he said.

It is one of three related websites designed by the IDC in partnership with Employers' and Manufacturers' Association (Central), as a free service to help New Zealand manufacturers.

The site allows manufacturers to create an online profile of their business by entering their own text and pictures to show who they are and what they do. They can add photos of their premises, machinery, key staff, products, and other information. Content can be changed at any time.

MarketplaceNZ.com has Google-like search functionality which makes it easy for prospective buyers to find suppliers and products,

Rebstock warns cartels - we're after you

Posted Fri, 12/10/2007 - 12:00am by admin

Published in the National Business Review of 12 October 2007

Commission chair Paula Rebstock has issued another of her blunt warnings: cartels are affecting the competitiveness of New Zealand businesses at home and in export markets.

Seven of the ten high priority competition cases due for prosecution by the Commission involve "hard core" cartels.

"We would normally expect to initiate one or two competition cases per year, but as a result of the behaviour coming to our attention, we expect to take four to six cases in each of the next two years," she says

"Cases we are currently investigating are affecting the critical energy and transportation infrastructure sectors, and the health sector. They are affecting building costs, and office supplies, packaging, and inputs into basic industrial processes."

Ms Rebstock says the Commission is prosecuting more cartels than before.

"This is partly due to increased investigative expertise, and partly due to the Commission's Leniency Policy, which offers immunity from prosecution for the first cartel member who blows the whistle on their co-conspirators."

Markets with annual turnovers of up $500 million were affected although some markets were as small as $2-3 million dollars a year.

"These cartels are being led by New Zealanders in some cases and in others (they are) initiated by overseas companies."

Changes loom for Commerce Act rules

Posted Fri, 12/10/2007 - 12:00am by admin

Published in the National Business Review of 12 October 2007

The government's review of the Commerce Act is expected to produce bigger changes in the regulatory area than in mergers and acquisitions, Commerce Commission Chairman Paula Rebstock says.

She told a Wellington Chamber of Commerce business audience this week that the Commission and the Ministry of Economic Development had discussed how to implement the outcome of the review.

On mergers and acquisitions, she did not see any radical changes.

"The general provisions of the New Zealand law are in line with international best practice. We don't see big changes coming, maybe some fine tuning," she said.

Bigger changes were expected in the regulatory area. Chamber Chief Executive Charles Finny had criticised the "odd situation where we have a separate and different set of controls for the telecommunications sector and airports are exempt from the regulatory provisions of the Commerce Act altogether."

Ms Rebstock said that the Commission took the differences seriously and (with government) "we raise them whenever we have an opportunity."

"My own perspective is that it's early days in the evolution of New Zealand's regulatory framework. I do that we need to be mindful of the small size of New Zealand. It is costly to regulate.