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1. The great unseen Doctor Duopoly
The Government is telling us an intrenched duopoly is bad for NZ. The supermarket sector is under scrutiny as was the fuel sector last year, but the Doctor Duopoly needs a sort out and it is dominated by a couple of universities.
Kiwis need lots more doctors and nurses, but supply is constricted by the powerful, intrenched medical school duopoly. With Auckland and Otago Universities’ student intake restricting the supply of doctors and nurses, the current and long-term health of our people and our society is hugely compromised.
We need GPs by the hundreds to take the primary care load off our hospitals. At the moment, every DHB is under pressure through a lack of doctors and nurses. You see it in the news daily. Kiwis wanting to see their GP are forced to go to the local hospital because their GP is stressed by overwork, Covid or simply not enough hours in the day to see everyone who needs them.
So, you head to the Emergency Department and sadly you find a bloody long queue.
It is no wonder the health authorities are not publishing patient waiting times.
We need more doctors and nurses. We need to create more senior nurses who can step up and pick up some of the load our doctors are under.
The solution is under the noses of our leaders.
The University of Waikato Medical School
But no, the duopolistic power of the medical schools in Otago and Auckland have convinced the current government to stymy any idea of a third medical school.
The Doctor Duopoly is winning, and the taxpayer is losing.
It is time for a change.
If there was a political party promising to create more doctors and nurses, everyone in those long hospital queues would be voting for them.
2. Waikato businesses telling politicians what we want
The Chatham House sessions
We are getting the opportunity in Chatham House Rule meetings to tell our political leaders what we want for the Waikato, rather than being talked to.
The feedback our politicians are getting from business centres around several main themes:
- Infrastructure
- People
- Housing
- Health
- Inflation
- Innovation
- Digital
- Sectors such as Agriculture, Tourism, Hospitality
- Outcomes not announcements
Any thoughts you would like us to tell our political leaders in the coming months, please send to info@waikatochamber.co.nz. Your feedback is welcome.
3. Amalgamation – the word that makes some mayors and councillors tremble
Both major political parties seem to have run out of patience with the demands of so many small local government entities. The appetite in Wellington and increasingly in business for amalgamation of territorial authorities seems high on the agenda at present. The tide toward centralisation is getting stronger in an economy that has post-Covid spending constraints.
How can central government invest in a region if the region hasn’t got a combined coherent vision for what they want the investment to be in?
With 12 territorial authorities governing 500,000 people versus Auckland with one governing 1.7 million, the Waikato is over governed and full of bureaucracy, delineated by artificial boundaries and characterised by parochialism. It is a theme the Chamber has raised in regards to Waikato local governments for many years.
Is change going to be forced upon us with the Three Waters legislation?
When Waipa DC councillors pulled the plug, due to one vote, on the creation of a joint water entity in 2018, did that convince the Labour Government that amalgamation was necessary? If so, then those councillors have handed amalgamation to the Department of Internal Affairs on a plate.
The two main political parties will not do a major infrastructure deal with one small territorial authority in a region; they want to invest in region wide projects, but first the regions need to agree on what that project is, or they go to the back of the funding queue.
So how could Amalgamation pan out?
Could we have a North Waikato including Waipa, HCC, Matamata-Piako, Waikato District Council, Hauraki and Thames / Coromandel alongside a South Waikato of Otorohanga, Waitomo, Taupo and South Waikato DC?
Or will it be one large Waikato Council?
Amalgamation is coming which ever way you look at it.
After watching from the sidelines of the embarrassing debacle over the Chair of the Waikato Regional Council, a tired and disgusted electorate might say it cannot come fast enough.
4. The Fair Pay Agreement legislation
This legislation will have a significant effect on small businesses which make up over 85% of NZ companies. Your Chamber will be having a public debate between those on both sides of the arguments in order that our members can make up their own minds on how the legislation will affect their company, its culture and their bottom line.
We include part of an article in the NZ Herald yesterday by Roger Partridge which encapsulates many of the generic objections to this legislation.
Roger Partridge the Chairperson of the New Zealand Initiative writes….
A Bill proposing to implement the reforms made its way to Parliament earlier this year. And on Budget Day last month, submissions closed on Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Wood's Fair Pay Agreement Bill.
The best that can be said for the Bill is that when it becomes obvious how bad the FPA idea really is, it will be easy for a government to repeal it. It requires just a single sentence to put a standalone Bill to death. "This Act is hereby repealed."
It will be a good thing too.
The policy objective of the Bill purports to be to improve labour market outcomes in New Zealand. However, the Bill will harm just about every interest group in the community other than the unions.
New Zealand's labour markets are performing very well, with high levels of employment, high levels of labour market participation, and one of the highest rates of job growth creation in the OECD. Therefore, the Government should be very cautious before altering labour market settings that are working well for workers and overall wellbeing.
The inevitable working group report and ministry discussion paper that preceded the Bill asserted a mix of perceived economic problems that needed "fixing." But research from The New Zealand Initiative has demonstrated these were either make-weights or misleading.
Wages in New Zealand are not plagued by a race to the bottom. Employees' share of GDP is not declining. Wage growth is not lagging behind productivity growth. The list of disproven claims by FPA policy proponents goes on and on.
It is true that productivity growth in New Zealand lags our OECD peers. But as the Initiative showed in its 2019 report, Work in progress: Why Fair Pay Agreements would be bad for labour, the country's productivity growth was even worse when the country's labour markets were regulated under the system of industrial awards the Government now wants to return to.
Worse still, international studies suggest that the inflexible industry- and occupation-wide system of awards in the FPA Bill risk harming New Zealand's already tepid productivity growth.
It is not hard to work out why. Setting terms and conditions of employment across entire industries or occupations will reduce flexibility. It will lock in practices that are unsuitable or inefficient for specific workplaces. And it will add cost and complexity. None of this is rocket science.
Nor are the concerns with the Government's FPAs proposals unique to the Initiative - or other private sector groups.
A 2018 OECD study cautions that centralised bargaining systems like FPAs are associated with lower productivity growth if coverage is high.
Advice to Cabinet from Treasury, the Government's own economic adviser, also questioned the rationale for introducing FPAs. Treasury questioned whether there was evidence suggesting imbalances in bargaining power caused wage and productivity concerns which FPAs were claimed to address. And even if bargaining power were the problem, Treasury said it could not see a "strong case" that FPAs were the most appropriate policy response.
The Regulatory Impact Statement on the Bill from the Minister's own department, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, was equally sceptical. MBIE stated that the proposed FPA system was not its "preferred" approach. Rather than throwing out the existing, flexible system of employment agreements, MBIE said it favoured tweaking it. This could be done by strengthening the existing system and setting targeted sector-based standards where a case could be made out.
Of course, New Zealand's labour market regulations already have provisions to protect vulnerable workers. These include our minimum wage laws and Part 6A of the Employment Relations Act 2000. The Holidays Act and the KiwiSaver Act also contain a suite of statutory minimum protections that apply to all employees. It is not surprising neither Treasury nor MBIE could identify a need for FPAs.
There will be arguments from the proponents of the legislation which we will share with you in next month’s CEO Thoughts.
We are interested in your feedback on this issue. Please send it to info@waikatochamber.co.nz.
5. The Waikato Chamber of Commerce Business Awards
This week the Chamber team visited our 2021 Supreme Award winner DEC and its leader Ryan Marra, and SVS Laboratories where our Emerging Leader of the Year Rae Pearson works. The Chamber team do not get involved in the nitty gritty of the judging, so it was a welcome opportunity to see for ourselves what our judges had seen.
What an amazing couple of companies and inspiring people, quietly working away in the Waikato. You have probably driven along Te Rapa straight many, many times and had no clue of the world class companies that are based there.
The Waikato never ceases to amaze us.
Feel inspired by the success of DEC and Rae Pearson?
Entries for the 2022 Waikato Business Awards supported by Foster Construction Group are now open and we invite you to enter.
There are 13 categories including the new People and Culture Award sponsored by Hamilton Airport. Entry information and details of our drop-in help sessions with Head Judge, Dr Heather Connolly, and our very own Jenny MacGregor can be found on our website.
A quick plug for Lunch & Learn:
Want to build a more engaged workplace and retain staff?
Learn how at our next Lunch & Learn session next Wednesday with Chamber Members, Skillpod.
This interactive workshop will show you how building a strong learning culture can result in visible signs of company success – stronger teamwork, better customer service, less staff turnover, fewer mistakes and better wellbeing.
Click here to learn more and register.
Regards
Don Good
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