Liam Dann: We need alternatives to create real wealth in NZ

Photo / Kenny Rodgers

So here it is. The Government's big chance to fix the regulatory mish-mash that has left hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders bitter and disillusioned with the investment sector.

Or rather, the latest chance. The action plan proposed yesterday hangs heavy with deja vu.

It comes too late for investors scarred by the financial disasters of the 1987 stockmarket crash and the finance company meltdowns of the past three years.

Let's hope this Government moves quickly and more decisively than its predecessors since deregulation in 1984.

Here we are in 2010 still considering a requirement to provide investors with plain English statements about what their money will be used for.

That's just one of several common sense recommendations offered by a taskforce which has identified the need to restore investor confidence before further progress can be made.

Other ideas - like reviewing the functions of several regulatory bodies to create a single agency with the teeth to police the investment industry - also look like no-brainers.

No amount of regulation can completely prevent the unscrupulous fleecing those less financially sophisticated than themselves. But it has been too easy in this country for those raising capital to misrepresent the level of risk involved in their endeavours.

Transparency must be at the heart of any plan to bring a new level of fairness to the investment markets.

Until that is achieved it won't matter how much tinkering the Government does with property taxes. Nothing will deter New Zealanders from buying rental properties until they have confidence in alternative investments.

And that's the point of all this - the reason every New Zealander should care about getting this right. We can not expect this economy to be more productive until we get New Zealanders investing in real businesses that generate real wealth.