"I was answering this question without 'protecting business and team from Covid' as no 1 when the alert poppedup on my phone advising of the PM's presser to announce the resurgence of Covid in NZ. Nearly two months later, I am still glad to be running a business here in NZ and not anywhere else in the world, for all the constraints L2.5 imposes. This thing is with us until we find an effective vaccine, and we all got incredibly complacent about the pandemic raging outside our doors. No longer. Let's keep learning, keep improving our border controls, while learning from the mistakes made to date. And more importantly, changing the way we operate for the longer term." — Property management chief executive.
What keeps CEOs awake at night?
Protecting business and staff from Covid-19 61% Achieving top-line revenue growth 33% Sourcing and retaining skilled staff 30% Meeting customer expectations 26% Impact of policy uncertainty on business 25% Regulatory challenges 23% Managing profit expectations 19% Competitive pressures 17% Improving operational efficiencies 17% Digital disruption 17% Achieving cost reduction 15% Changing organisational culture - 12% Motivating key reports - 9% CEO – Board relationship - 5% M&A (threat) - 2%
● The Wage Subsidy was an important step to keep people in work and the economy going. It has been broadly supported by business as being a positive initiative by the Government. But we do need business to adapt to the tough new environment and the Government (indeed NZ) can't afford to keep subsidising business indefinitely.
* Reopening NZ to the world. Yes, the web is island-helpful re Covid. But we can't remain closed to the world indefinitely. We need international students back, we need tourists back, we need business people to be able to travel to and fro. I would put camper vans at Whenupai and charge those wishing to access these facilities to increase the number of folk who can enter NZ. We need better ways to contact trace. I would access where people went using information on their cellphones. I think we need to 'get over' the privacy issue. For me, it's the quid pro quo for free movement during this Covid time. I trust Government agencies not to inappropriately use my information. Give the right to Crown agencies for say — a rolling 6 month period — while Covid remains an issue.
● Avoiding our economy going into free fall. Opening up our borders again (safely) is one aspect of the solution.Why don't we be open to offshore businesses setting up here, and as part of that letting key people in. Let's be selective. Allow in those that will create real jobs here, create export receipts and pay taxes. Let's not rush to increase taxes and tax rates in NZ (yes, tax advisers love the idea ... guess why ... ). Let's create tax revenue by getting the economy going again, creating jobs and making NZ an attractive place to do business (not just because of its current Covid status).
● Ensuring New Zealand is a place with a positive future for our younger generation. That means a place where there are jobs, where they can build a positive future in rewarding work and NZ is attractive to stay including economically. Having policies that create an environment for a strong economy is key to achieving this. We need an environment that creates incentives teamwork hard and be successful.
● Low productivity growth. Reverse two-decades-long educational decline that sees the current generation of school leaves towards the bottom of international league tables in literacy and numeracy. We will not have a high wage, high productivity economy when nearly 40 per cent of students leaving school with NCEA level 2 are functionally illiterate.
● Rising unemployment. The Government must ease the regulatory restrictions holding the economy back. RMA reform is urgently required (though not the "more-of-the-same-but-worse reforms proposed by the Randerson review). Restrictions on foreign investment must be relaxed. Local councils must be incentivised to streamline consenting processes for new housing. Creative thinking is needed at our border to (a) safely reopen to tourism; (b) develop the operational ability to massively scale up managed isolation and quarantine to enable the export education sector to get under way, businesses to bring in critical workers and to allow the economy to take advantage of its Covid-free status. Significant public spending is needed on infrastructure. But that must be dictated by a project's shovel-readiness, but whether it passes a cost-benefit analysis. The Government must keep an eye on ballooning public debt. Savings with retirement policies look to be the best means of bringing debt under control (indexing age of eligibility for superannuation to life expectancy, suspending payments to NZSF — and ideally winding it up and using the proceeds to repay debt; removing the ineffective KiwiSaver subsidies).
● Quality of public sector institutions.The last 10 years has seen a decline in the expertise and effectiveness of institutions critical to the New Zealand economy: Treasury and Reserve Bank. Despite the (welcome) change of leadership at Treasury, it has not provided the leadership needed during the Covid crisis. Nor has the Reserve Bank. Both have seen their technical expertise drastically depleted. Rebuilding the economics capability of both organisations must be a priority. Without that, core public policy decision-making will not be subjected to the kind of rigorous evaluation the country needs.
