Commerce Minister Welcomes Ministerial Panel On Business Compliance Costs' Report

Commerce Minister Paul Swain has welcomed the release of the report from the Ministerial Panel on Business Compliance Costs and thanked them for their work.

Paul Swain said their report, which canvasses issues ranging from the Resource Management Act to ACC and workplace safety, was a clear and practical response to their brief.

“We established this panel to find out what business was saying about compliance costs and, more importantly to find out how business thought those costs could be reduced. It’s a significant piece of work, covering a lot of issues.

“It’s the Government’s turn now. An interdepartmental working group will soon start work on the recommendations and the government’s preliminary response will be released by the end of August. A finalised response will be released in early December," he said.

A substantial body of work on compliance cost reduction had already begun and the panel’s report has both contributed to, and been a catalyst for that work.

“Our aim is to reduce the amount of time business people spend dealing with government, so they can get on with what they do best - running their business,” Paul Swain said.

Panel listed below.

Compliance Costs Panel Members

- Chair

Alan Dunn - Managing Director/CEO of McDonald’s New Zealand.

- John Albertson - Chief Executive of the Retail Merchants Association, Wellington.

- Andrew Fox - a sheep and beef farmer from North Canterbury.

- Chye Heng - Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary of Beca Group Ltd, Consulting Engineers.

- David Hoskin - Managing Director of Dave Hoskin’s Carriers Ltd, Wanganui and President of the Central Road Carriers Association.

- Claire Johnstone - Head of MPI Clemenger BBDO, and formerly Chief Executive of the Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce.

- Peter Mony - General Manager of Maxtel Software Ltd, Auckland.

- Clare Nolan - Manager of the Wellington City Council’s Economic Development Unit.

- Vaughan Renner - Chief Executive of South Pacific Tyres Limited, a tyre manufacturing company in Upper Hutt.

- Jerry Rickman - a Managing Partner of Beattie Rickman, Chartered Accountants, Hamilton.

- Helen Samujh - a Senior Lecturer at Waikato University, who has an accountancy and economics background and experience of running a small business.

For further information on the Business Compliance Costs Panel: http://www.businesscompliance.govt.nz

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>