Latest / Best of Business / Brad Olsen: Infometrics chief executive on the Government's signs a new standards agreement with Australia

Transcript

Brad Olsen: Infometrics chief executive on the Government's signs a new standards agreement with Australia · Best of Business

• 0:09
  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from newstalk ZEDB. Follow this
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and our wide range of podcasts now on iHeartRadio.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: The government signed a new standards agreement with Australia. It
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: covers areas like AI, data management and cybersecurity. Scott Simpson
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: did this. He's our Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister. He
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: says it's going to lower costs for businesses. Brad Olson
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: infametrics with us this morning.
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: Hey Brad, good morning.
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: What is this thing?
• 0:37
  Speaker 3: Well, it's effectively making sure that all of this sort
• 0:40
  Speaker 3: of real base level standards, so the various things that
• 0:43
  Speaker 3: businesses have to do when they're operating in either New
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: Zealand or Australia are aligned. So if you're someone who's
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: offering services or trying offer services in both countries, you
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: don't want to have to fill out two sets of
• 0:54
  Speaker 3: paperwork and sort of conform to two different standards to
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: do effectively the same work. We're so close with Australia.
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: They are one of our biggest trading partners, certainly in
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: the services industry, and so effectively this is meant to
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: allow a lot of businesses who do with trans tasmin
• 1:10
  Speaker 3: to do that A whole lot more efficiently, Whereas, and
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: this is the challenge that we continue to hear from
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: businesses otherwise sort of start doing all that paperwork. They're
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: trying to sort of figure out how they do the
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: base stuff. They don't actually have the time to do
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: actual work and then make money. So this is a
• 1:25
  Speaker 3: good move. It's not something that I don't think consumers
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: are going to notice a whole lot. They're not going
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: to be looking at ENZ standard three zero one eighty five,
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: but it's going to make a difference to businesses not
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: having all that admin to do in the background.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: Which way does more business go trans tasmin wise from
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: US to them or them to us.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: Looking at services activity, the Australia is the second largest
• 1:51
  Speaker 3: export area that we export our services too, so we
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: send services over there now that includes things like tourism
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: as well. And it's a little bit tricky on the
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: services side to break down other bits and pieces, but
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: in terms of overall trade they're sort of second or
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: third largest after China and the US. They are vitally important.
• 2:09
  Speaker 3: And I think the other big reason that these sort
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: of changes make such a difference is because we've obviously
• 2:15
  Speaker 3: seen such a big flow of New Zealanders who go
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: across to Australia and they sort of often take their
• 2:20
  Speaker 3: skills at points in the past, maybe not so much
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: at the moment, but they do often then come back
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: or you know, have families back in New Zealand and
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: the like. So there is some real importance here and
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: some of the areas that the government are noting they
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: should make a bit of a difference under the hood
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: for a lot of businesses. You know, you're talking about
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: the likes of electrical installations, you're looking at civil engineering,
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: you know, parts around building design and construction. And probably
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: the biggest one is that there's actually twenty four standards
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: that previously we had in certain areas that we sort
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: of got out of kilter. The Aussies went one way,
• 2:54
  Speaker 3: we'd gone another, and so again you're probably having businesses
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: out there that are effectively having to employ a whole
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: other person just to sort out the paperwork on this stuff.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: Now at least they'll be a little bit more aligned.
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: And look, talking of businesses, there's a whole lot of
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: stuff they want to do more, better, faster, stronger, but
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: these sort of things they are the I guess that
• 3:12
  Speaker 3: the main below the surface issue that if you don't
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: get them right, they're just such an immediate barrier to
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: a lot of businesses. Oftentimes people go, it's not worth
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: it to do that work. So this should free up
• 3:22
  Speaker 3: a lot of capacity across the system as we go forwards.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: All right, Brad, appreciate that update this morning, Brad Elson Informetrics.
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: For more from News Talks B listen live on air
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: or online, and keep our shows with you wherever you
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: go with our podcasts on iHeartRadio.