Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Oliver Hartwich: NZ Initiative Executive Director on business leaders signing an open letter urging political parties to drop interventionist policies

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Oliver Hartwich: NZ Initiative Executive Director on business leaders signing an open letter urging political parties to drop interventionist policies · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So you've got about 50 business leaders all signing an
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: open letter with the same sentiment, governments stay out of business.
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Nick Mowbray, Antonio Watson, Chris Quinn, you name it, they're
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: all on there. Things are basic, you would have thought.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Protect private property rights, freedom of contract, lawful agreements shouldn't
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: be rewritten to suit election promises. Dr Oliver Hartwich, New
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  Speaker 1: Zealand Initiative Executive Director with us this morning. Oliver, good morning.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Good morning, Ryan. How are you?
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Very well, thank you. So what is the most concerning of,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I've been through the list, you guys, of,
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  Speaker 1: you know, rewriting the retirement village contracts that have already
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: been signed, cancel mining approvals that have been granted lawfully.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Of the policies so far announced, which to you is
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  Speaker 1: the most egregious or concerning?
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  Speaker 2: I think they all form a pattern. It seems to
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: be that we have arrived in a period of post-rational
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: politics where anything goes, as long as it holds well
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: with a focus group. There were previously things that you
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: think you couldn't touch. You couldn't just threaten the company
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  Speaker 2: with nationalization, for example. You couldn't retrospectively alter business contracts.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: But everything goes nowadays if you think you can win
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  Speaker 2: an election advantage by promising voters what they want to hear,
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  Speaker 2: whether that's right or not. And that is the pattern
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  Speaker 2: that we have detected through all parties, really. And that's
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  Speaker 2: why we've written this letter, which is not directed at
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  Speaker 2: any particular party, not at any particular party. promise that
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  Speaker 2: these parties have made, but really at the petal that
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  Speaker 2: has emerged.
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  Speaker 1: Is your message to the parties or is it really
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  Speaker 1: to us, the voters?
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  Speaker 2: Well, the letter is actually addressed to the parties because
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  Speaker 2: we think the parties have a responsibility to behave responsibly.
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  Speaker 2: They shouldn't actually entertain policies that completely go against the
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: economic constitution of this country. And therefore, that was our
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  Speaker 2: primary addressee, the parties. But of course, voters have a
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: responsibility too. They shouldn't reward this kind of behavior.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: Oliver, the National Party and their supermarket plan, I mean,
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  Speaker 1: I've spoken to business leaders who don't want to speak publicly,
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  Speaker 1: but I think this is absolute madness from that party
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  Speaker 1: in particular.
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  Speaker 2: What are you hearing? I hear exactly the same, and
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  Speaker 2: it's interesting that you say that business leaders wouldn't say
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  Speaker 2: that publicly because that's exactly the behaviour I encountered too.
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  Speaker 2: We put this open letter out to a large group
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  Speaker 2: of business people, and you wouldn't believe how many business
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  Speaker 2: leaders told me I could not possibly agree with this
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  Speaker 2: in public, even though I completely privately agree with it,
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  Speaker 2: because I fear for the repercussions. There is a culture
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  Speaker 2: of fear among New Zealand business leaders where they think
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  Speaker 2: if they speak out against policies that are absolutely nonsensical,
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  Speaker 2: they would be targeted, they would be punished by our politicians.
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  Speaker 2: And I think that culture of fear is something that
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  Speaker 2: concerns me even more than the policies they proposed.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: Which is a race to the bottom, because how do
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: you have a debate about something if no one's giving
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  Speaker 1: the counter-argument?
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  Speaker 2: That's exactly right. I heard from one business leader, they
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: got just invited to participate in the mood of the
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  Speaker 2: boardroom survey. This is the one place where they can
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  Speaker 2: actually say anonymously what they really think. And that business
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  Speaker 2: leader said to me, this was his one chance in
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  Speaker 2: a year to really say what he thinks, because otherwise
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  Speaker 2: he would not get away with it.
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  Speaker 1: Oliver Hartwich, New Zealand Initiative Executive Director.