Let's do away with hurdles to investment

Securities Commission chairwoman Jane Diplock believes the celebration of 20 years of CER is just the catalyst to make people focus more on the issue of transtasman harmonisation.

"The visits by Howard and Costello in a way have, curiously, brought these issues more to the Australian attention and that's a good thing," Diplock says.

"New Zealand's had quite a bit of focus on it, but I'm not sure it has had quite the same amount of airplay in Australia.

"Now there's some energy there."

Diplock is one of a number of sassy Australians - mainly women - living in New Zealand who are happy to break the mould and push for a new joint transtasman agenda.

"We are two very small markets in world terms and the New Zealand market is a very, very small market," she says. "So if we are looking to attract international capital to this part of the world we need to have jurisdictions in which people can easily invest and ensure there's no extra hurdles to invest in New Zealand."

Since taking up her chairmanship of the prime market watchdog in late 2001, Diplock has trodden a careful but firm path through the deregulated playing field as she seeks to take a tougher stance to marginal New Zealand practices.

Diplock has close ties with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (Asic) where she previously served as national director infrastructure and strategic planning and NSW regional commissioner.

Diplock has since deepened ties by sending senior staff to work through issues at the Asic as part of "capability building."

She believes there should be an overlap in membership between the two commissions - "just like the Takeovers Panel".

"There are obviously some structural issues from the Australian point of view," she says. "Because their commission has three fulltime members, it is not a board of the market as ours is."

While she believes there will be a major shift towards greater harmonisation over a three to five-year timeframe, it does not necessarily mean identical laws.

"I think here in New Zealand we have to look and see what suits a smaller economy. There's no point in adopting holus-bolus something that would increase compliance costs immensely for not much benefit.

"I think we are heading down the track of having seamless business activity pretty well," Diplock concludes. "But I think it's important that New Zealanders don't feel that in order to do this, there should be any loss of their own sovereignty and New Zealand-ness.

"That doesn't have to happen at all."

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