Reports & Media

This report addresses the question of what should become of New Zealand's minimum wage law.  Read more

I have been asked to review issues raised by the International Labour Organisation ('the ILO') in response to a complaint ('the complaint') dated 8 February 1993 made by the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions ('the NZCTU'). In substance the complaint is that the Employment Contracts Act 1991 (NZ) ('the Act'), which came into operation on 15 May 1991, does not accord with principles adopted by the ILO in relation to freedom of association and collective bargaining. Read more

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A year ago the New Zealand Business Roundtable published the ACIL report Agricultural Marketing Regulation: Reality versus Doctrine. Since then its conclusions have been widely debated and there have been developments in each of the five major industries studied. Read more

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The 93,000 kilometre roading network is one of the New Zealand’s most expensive assets. In the absence of any official estimate, informed observers put its depreciated replacement cost at around $60 billion. Read more

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The authors analyse three reform proposals to the 1992 system of government: the replacement of the first-past-the-post electoral system with proportional representation, the reintroduction of a second chamber of parliament and increased use of referenda. The study assesses whether such reforms would improve the workings of government. Read more

The 1990s are destined to be a decade of profound and potentially beneficial change in the New Zealand economy. The process of structural reform is well advanced and is laying the foundations for a significant and sustained reversal of our inferior economic performance. Read more

The New Zealand experience with requiring state-owned enterprises (SOEs) to be run as successful businesses demonstrates that high quality reforms can generate enormous gains in productivity, product quality and profitability - along with lower (real) prices for consumers. Nevertheless, the gains were always likely to be limited by the difficulties involved in: * applying full commercial disciplines when state industries do not have to succeed to survive; * providing risk capital to SOEs when fiscal constraints and/or political considerations may conflict with commercial goals; * making the competitive environment genuinely neutral, when continuing government ownership brings with it the possibility of future state bail-outs; and * maintaining the early gains in the face of the political pressures to weaken the commercial disciplines which were put in place when the SOEs were first formed. Read more

This report examines New Zealand’s fiscal policy in the context of wider policies aimed at restructuring the economy in order to raise income and employment levels, and outlines the desirable directions of fiscal policy over the medium term. Read more

The reforms proposed in the Industry Training Bill are likely to produce training more closely related to the needs of the industry and more dynamic in its response to changing needs. Nevertheless, the gains from these reforms will fall short of what might be achieved because of a number of conditions in the Bill for recognising and funding Industry Training Organisations. Read more

The NZBR is interested in encouraging the adoption of policies which maximise the efficiency of the electricity industry. It has participated in previous reviews of the industry, presenting a major submission on pricing issues to the government in 1985, and it has supported the formation of the Electricity Corporation as a state-owned enterprise and the deregulation of the generation market. Read more

The NZBR's interest in the Financial Reporting Bill (the Bill) stems from its desire to promote policies which will enhance the efficiency of New Zealand's equity and debt markets. These markets play a key role in allocating resources among alternative uses and they facilitate competition for the control of large publicly-held companies. Read more

The Bill is designed to provide a legal framework for the operation of the proposed Takeover Panel, including the formation of a takeover 'code'. In addition, the Bill offers some generalised guidelines to the Panel in its tasks and provides for enforcement of compliance with any code devised by the Panel and approved by the Minister of Justice. Read more