Action slow on business regulation review

Print

Behind the fine words of the business regulation review, there’s not enough action, says Business NZ.

Chief executive Phil O’Reilly says the final report of the 15-month Quality Regulation Review, released today, contains several useful outcomes.

These include increased scrutiny of private members bills in Parliament, the Omnibus Bill fast tracking a number of legislative changes and information-sharing of data collection by Government departments.

“But overall there’s been little progress on key regulatory issues for business and their associated compliance costs.

“For example, employers are consistently telling us, through our Business NZ KPMG Compliance Cost Survey, that the compliance cost trends associated with the Holidays Act are the biggest concern amongst business – and next to nothing’s been done there.

“We would have expected more in 15 months.”

Although the Government says it’s going to do a better job of creating quality regulation, recent examples, such as the bill associated with the enhanced changes to Kiwisaver, show there’s been no real improvement.

“Kiwisaver is the classic example of poor regulation with no cost benefit analysis or consultation with business, resulting in a significant burden on employers.

“The fine words in this report should be measured against this recent action,” says Mr O’Reilly.

Business NZ calls for a range of regulatory solutions including a regulatory responsibility act, the use of standard cost models, sunset clauses and investigation into an independent governmental regulatory body that would act as a gatekeeper to regulation.

“We hope there will be a lot more to come out of this review in the future.”