A submission on the Spending Cap (People's Veto) Bill to require a voter referendum to approve any real per capita increase in core Crown operating spending and proposed strengthening measures. Read more
Prime minister John Key observed that the 2011 election was about the economy. Business people are looking to the incoming government to address critical weaknesses in our economy and implement policies to boost economic growth. Read more
A submission by the New Zealand Business Roundtable on the Auckland Council's Draft Plan. Read more
The Taskforce has produced a report and draft Bill of exceptional quality. The Bill provides the best current option for improving regulatory quality, even though on its own it is no panacea. Read more
The affordability of housing is an important issue. The quantity, quality and price of housing services obtained through owner-occupation, renting and other arrangements are vital for the overall welfare of all New Zealanders. Read more
The Business Roundtable supports well-conceived law regulating cartel conduct. However, for the reasons explained in our March 2010 submission on the earlier Ministry of Economic Development discussion document, we are opposed to criminalisation. Read more
More ladders, fewer snakes proposes that accelerated roll-out of e-learning to low decile schools and improving the school-to-work transition will materially reduce youth unemployment and resulting social issues. Read more
A submission by the New Zealand Business Roundtable to members of the 2011 Emissions Trading Scheme Review Panel. Read more
This is a submission by the Major Electricity Users’ Group and the New Zealand Business Roundtable on the paper “Gazetting New Zealand’s 2050 Emissions Target - Minister’s Position Paper” released 29th January 2011 by the Minister for Climate Change Issues along with a media release “50 by 50 emissions reduction target proposed”. Read more
We see the issue of welfare dependency and welfare costs as hugely important – economically, fiscally and socially. The WWG’s work should be seen in the context of the precarious current economic situation, with an anaemic GDP growth outlook and dangerous external vulnerabilities due to very high foreign indebtedness. Read more
Plugging the gap proposes 14 policy directions to improve the success of internationalising New Zealand businesses. Internationalisation performance improvement will accelerate growth in high value exports and lift prosperity. Read more
Executive pay has been in the news again, with recent reports of the remuneration packages of Sir Ralph Norris, CEO of Commonwealth Bank of Australia, and George Frazis, head of Westpac New Zealand. Some claim they are unfair or undeserved. Read more
The Financial Markets Authority (FMA) has the potential to play a positive role in relation to New Zealand’s financial markets provided that its approach to the exercise of its significant regulatory powers is measured and responsible. Read more
This is a revised version of the keynote address to the joint conference of the New Zealand Association of Economists and Law and Economics Association of New Zealand held in Auckland on 30 June 2010. The neoclassical ‘economist king’ has tumbled from his pedestal. Read more
Sir Ronald Trotter was the first chairman of the New Zealand Business Roundtable in its present form, a position he held from 1985 to 1990. Among his many other roles he has been chief executive and chairman of Fletcher Challenge Limited, chairman of the Steering Committee of the 1984 Economic Summit, a director of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, chairman of the State-owned Enterprises Advisory Committee, chairman of Telecom Corporation, chairman of the National Interim Provider Board, a chairman or director of several major New Zealand and Australian companies, and chairman of the board of the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Read more