Gib, the measure of "business friendly" didn't include such details as the Resource Management Act. It included ease of setting up a business, which is true because the companies office is well run and it really is very easy to form a company. Japan is a relative nightmare by comparison. It included creditor security, which was correct because creditors really do enjoy very good protection, relative ease of enforcement and collection. It included contracts, which really are well enforced and reliable. I think it included government corruption, which makes it difficult for business and NZ has very low government corruption compared with many countries.
But those are administrative details. Climb inside the tax code and see how easy it is to run a business. Employment laws are a joke, with employees "owning" jobs.
Try doing anything other than start just another olde style business and things are not so simple and all sorts of stifling will be brought to bear.
Try building a nuclear reactor in Auckland to solve the energy problem for example. You know that will NOT happen. Try ocean farming of fish. Big Tangata Whenua problem and bureaucracy. Try burning rubbish in a power station = big no no. Try anything which isn't a plumbing, carpentry, or corner store small business and the red tape will be out in force. Sell lemonade out the front of your house and see how long it takes for dozens of government functionaries to come along to tell you that you have to get permits, licences, consents and all sorts of stuff. It's ridiculous.
Clark isn't a commie, in the sense that she thinks everything needs to be owned by the state, but she loves state control of everything that moves, and supervision of everything that doesn't. Which has much the same effect.
Mqurice |
