Latest / Best of Business / Jenee Tibshraeny: NZ Herald Wellington business editor on the Government changing climate disclosure rules for big companies

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Jenee Tibshraeny: NZ Herald Wellington business editor on the Government changing climate disclosure rules for big companies · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from News Talks'd be follow
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  Speaker 2: Now, the number of companies that will be required to
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  Speaker 2: make climate related disclosures will be significantly slashed. The government
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  Speaker 2: will now only require listed issuers with a market cap
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  Speaker 2: of more than a billion dollars to make disclosures. Currently
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  Speaker 2: the threshold of sixty million dollars. Genatib Trainy is The
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  Speaker 2: Herald's Wellington Business editor and with US Hygiene Hi Heaver
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  Speaker 2: is a complete radio silence from the Greens today.
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  Speaker 3: Well I was a bit surprise. This is a fairly
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  Speaker 3: big announcement the government made. We published news of it
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  Speaker 3: at five am. This was a climate reporting regime that
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  Speaker 3: James Shaw introduced. Basically, James Shaw's thinking was, if we
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  Speaker 3: get the country's biggest companies, banks, insurers, fund managers, you
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  Speaker 3: know the people who run our hew we savers, if
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  Speaker 3: we get them to disclose what their emissions are, you
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  Speaker 3: know that's a good bit of sunlight and that might
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  Speaker 3: prompt them to try to do business in a way
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  Speaker 3: that's more environmentally friendly. And you know that reporting is
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  Speaker 3: also good because that can you know if companies are
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  Speaker 3: looking at investing in climate friendly things. They can see
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  Speaker 3: what the emissions are and you know, make investment decisions accordingly.
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  Speaker 3: You know, banks can also do that. They can they
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  Speaker 3: can lean to people who are trying to cut a mission.
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  Speaker 3: So that was the thinking. James Shaw put a lot
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  Speaker 3: of weight on this regime. You know, it's been years
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  Speaker 3: in the making, it's only been up and running for
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  Speaker 3: a short time. When the government announced this morning that
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  Speaker 3: it was radically you know, well not radically but quite
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  Speaker 3: substantially watering down that regime, I would have thought the
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  Speaker 3: Greens would have been out there straight away, you know,
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  Speaker 3: pointing this out. But the Greens did not release a
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  Speaker 3: press release or statement on this today. So you know,
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  Speaker 3: I asked them about it. I said, what went on?
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  Speaker 3: It sounds like it might have just been logistics. They
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  Speaker 3: did have the staff to do it. But you know,
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  Speaker 3: one does have to question whether the Green's emphasis is where.
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  Speaker 1: It is.
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  Speaker 3: Compared to when James Shaw was at the Home of
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  Speaker 3: the Bay.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, not focused enough on the green part of their name.
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  Speaker 2: Now do you think the removal of this from the
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  Speaker 2: smaller businesses will encourage listings on the zet X by
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  Speaker 2: businesses that perhaps may have been put off by this.
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  Speaker 3: Well, you know, I thought this was quite a big call.
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  Speaker 3: So this is the inst X. They said that actually,
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  Speaker 3: because these disclosure rules are so onerous, you know, to
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  Speaker 3: try to calculate your missions, and also directors of companies
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  Speaker 3: can be personally liable if rules are broken. Int X
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  Speaker 3: are saying that that prevented companies from wanting to list.
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  Speaker 3: I think that's a pretty big statement to make. I
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  Speaker 3: haven't heard this evidence, but that there might be instances
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  Speaker 3: like that. I suspect companies are not listening for a
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  Speaker 3: raft of reasons, and I can't see that this is
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  Speaker 3: the main one. But you know, no doubt, I think
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  Speaker 3: that this decision by the government is just one more
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  Speaker 3: little bit of red tape or difficulty it's trying to
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  Speaker 3: remove to try to stimulate growth, get businesses listing on
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  Speaker 3: the enz X, which is not having a great time
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  Speaker 3: at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: Now you've had a couple of days to let the
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  Speaker 2: Labor Future Fund really sink into your brain. What's your
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  Speaker 2: Because I think you struck on something Janey earlier this
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  Speaker 2: week that I think is very important, which is that
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  Speaker 2: that it's almost it feels like an attempt to kind
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  Speaker 2: of cozy up to New Zealand First ahead of the
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  Speaker 2: coalition potential coalition talks next election. There is that really?
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  Speaker 2: Do you think the primary motivator here?
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  Speaker 3: Oh? Look, I think it was a political policy. I
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  Speaker 3: thought that the main thing that really struck me was
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  Speaker 3: that it puts the spotlight on asset sales. Because there
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  Speaker 3: are many ways governments can invest in businesses and lend
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  Speaker 3: to businesses. Labor did that a lot when it was
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  Speaker 3: in government. There are many ways to do it that
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  Speaker 3: don't involve coming up with a complicated skill involving our
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  Speaker 3: state owned enterprises. The difference with this scheme is that
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  Speaker 3: it links the SOEs to the fund and by doing that,
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  Speaker 3: it's saying Labor wouldn't get rid of certain state owned enterprises.
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  Speaker 3: So I think that then puts the spotlight on National
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  Speaker 3: which is keen to do asset recycling, you know, which
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  Speaker 3: is when we might celibate here to buy a bit
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  Speaker 3: they're free out money. So I thought maybe from that
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  Speaker 3: perspective they ticked the box in terms of politics, and
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  Speaker 3: as you say here that in terms of you know,
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  Speaker 3: coming up with something that aligns them with New Zealand First,
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  Speaker 3: which is a good strategy leading up to the election.
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  Speaker 3: I think you know, to Party Maori and the Green
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  Speaker 3: Party have drifted quite far from where they were previously,
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  Speaker 3: potentially in such a way that would put off a
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  Speaker 3: lot of centrist voters that Labor would be courting.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you might be right, Jenny, Thanks very much,
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  Speaker 2: really appreciate your time this Jenna tib Trainey, who's the
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  Speaker 2: Wellington Business Editors.
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