Those conversations prompted an open letter, now signed by 51 business leaders. It asks all political parties to respect private property and the agreements people make.
Politicians have proposed forced business break-ups, state takeovers and rewriting existing contracts. Together with increasingly hostile rhetoric towards business, these proposals suggest that ownership is secure only as long as politicians find it convenient.
People struggling with grocery bills, rent or the cost of seeing a doctor deserve serious answers. Their frustration is understandable. Politicians should tackle the root causes of these problems.
Instead, they are increasingly resorting to blaming business. Such scapegoating is easy. Presumably it polls well. Removing the obstacles to building new homes, increasing competition or generating additional electricity takes sustained work.
Our letter calls for the same rules for everyone. Consumers deserve protection against dishonest conduct and illegal restrictions on competition. Enforcing those rules is part of maintaining a rules-based economy.
So is restraining political power. Property rights mean that what you lawfully own is yours. Freedom of contract means people can make lawful agreements and rely on them. Neither should be vulnerable to politicians claiming that overriding them will make somebody else better off.
Nor does compensation repair the damage to our reputation. Investors elsewhere see the precedent. They do not have to invest in New Zealand. Neither do New Zealanders.
Even a threat that never becomes law can delay a factory or a new power station. Jobs that might have been created may never appear. Customers miss out on new competitors.
Less investment also means fewer opportunities for the higher wages that families so badly need. The cost falls well beyond the owners of the businesses being targeted.
Our letter asks politicians to withdraw these proposals and get on with work the country needs: repairing public finances, improving education and delivering reliable infrastructure. An ageing population and a more dangerous world make that work urgent.
We need conditions in which people can build homes, expand businesses and hire staff with confidence. Those who signed are ready to work with any government towards that end. The next generation should inherit a country where people are confident enough to build something that lasts.
You can read our open letter here.
Dr Oliver Hartwich is the Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative think tank. This article was first published HERE.
People struggling with grocery bills, rent or the cost of seeing a doctor deserve serious answers. Their frustration is understandable. Politicians should tackle the root causes of these problems.
Instead, they are increasingly resorting to blaming business. Such scapegoating is easy. Presumably it polls well. Removing the obstacles to building new homes, increasing competition or generating additional electricity takes sustained work.
Our letter calls for the same rules for everyone. Consumers deserve protection against dishonest conduct and illegal restrictions on competition. Enforcing those rules is part of maintaining a rules-based economy.
So is restraining political power. Property rights mean that what you lawfully own is yours. Freedom of contract means people can make lawful agreements and rely on them. Neither should be vulnerable to politicians claiming that overriding them will make somebody else better off.
Nor does compensation repair the damage to our reputation. Investors elsewhere see the precedent. They do not have to invest in New Zealand. Neither do New Zealanders.
Even a threat that never becomes law can delay a factory or a new power station. Jobs that might have been created may never appear. Customers miss out on new competitors.
Less investment also means fewer opportunities for the higher wages that families so badly need. The cost falls well beyond the owners of the businesses being targeted.
Our letter asks politicians to withdraw these proposals and get on with work the country needs: repairing public finances, improving education and delivering reliable infrastructure. An ageing population and a more dangerous world make that work urgent.
We need conditions in which people can build homes, expand businesses and hire staff with confidence. Those who signed are ready to work with any government towards that end. The next generation should inherit a country where people are confident enough to build something that lasts.
You can read our open letter here.
Dr Oliver Hartwich is the Executive Director of The New Zealand Initiative think tank. This article was first published HERE.
3 comments:
Congratulations Nick Mowbray, the Initiative and CEOs of New Zealand's biggest businesses = yes the richest most powerful people in NZ bravely spoke up to say that the poorest ones better just scoff up with the money to pay for overpriced food, banking services, electricity and construction. Gosh, that must have taken guts. Leave monopolists and oligopolists alone, they say. Apart from deregulating them even more to promote market entry which has not happened for decades because it won't due to economies of scale. Even National Party PM disagrees with you now. Go pour more money into ACT to ensure NZ is run by the few extorting the many. ACT has betrayed the principles upon which it was founded as it attempts to break the back of the country as it forces an extreme libertarianism on us all. We found out what forcing ideology on a nation does during the era of the Soviet Empire.
Meanwhile record numbers of businesses are closing under National, and Luxon is moving levers to get more money into selling dirt back and forth.
National has also managed a magic trick of cutting services while simultaneously spending more.
How on earth do they do it!
This country is starting to get really radical and quite frightening with the commentary from the political parties. I would not invest here.
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