A few thoughts from Thursday 12 March statement:

A quick snapshot:

July 2008 OCR @ 8.25%
Mar 2009 OCR @ 3.00%

Dr Bollard has indicated that they've not finished with the cuts, although expects them to be smaller in future, perhaps back to 25bps. When asked about the influence of the RBA on his decision (given that they'd held
rates) He replied, "it's good to have some gutsy Central Banks around". Dr Bollard is also aware that NZ's interest rates need to remain competitive in order to attract overseas investment (help fund Current Ac Deficient and supply funding to NZ market), so he's not going anywhere near zero.

Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing the world today. Many organsations are seeking to reduce their carbon footprint.

Emissions trading will help reduce emissions, encourage and support global action on climate change, and help put New Zealand on a path to sustainability.

But this will mean additional costs to the SME sector.

The climate change issue will set up a market to put a value on emissions, encouraging households and companies to cut their greenhouse gas emissions.

It is not about writing a cheque to buy carbon credits to off-set our emissions. Small Business needs to fundamentally changing the way they do business to reduce their carbon footprint.

According to the Labour market Report 2007, New Zealand experienced an increase of 0.2% with the creation of 4,700 new jobs.

Indicative of continuing skill shortages 42% of employers stated difficulties in attracting staff. Of the total reported cases 50% indicated pay increases over the past 12 months to retain staff.

Behavioral research in the workplace revealed growing staff commitment, sense of purpose and overall trust in the employing organisation. In spite of such positive attitude comparative data with competing economies reveal lagging productivity in the New Zealand workforce.

Unexpected criticism of this NZTE initiative runs counter to the Independent Business Foundation’s position on foreign investment.

We took a strong stand on the misguided Made from New Zealand project on the grounds that outsourcing manufacturing to low cost countries without direct ownership in plant and processes would ultimately give the host country access to critical IT at the expense of product integrity.

While we share the enthusiasm for the Kiwi Made campaign as a means to keep expertise and jobs at home, we realise the importance in certain circumstances of bringing our productive capacity closer to our overseas markets. Achieving this with ownership of foreign resources, managed and to some extent staffed by New Zealand nationals will achieve best outcomes in both respects.

The latest announcement of further extensions to our major international airport must be seen in light of what they are – Evidence of bad planning.

Regular users of this essential facility will attest to the fact that there have been ongoing additions and renovations over a lengthy period of many years.

The associated inconvenience on passengers and service staff bears witness to the vagaries of decision making at the top end of the organisation and lends further weight to the commissioning of a second airport to serve the Auckland region.

In the absence of a fast track on-ground transport solution to take and bring passengers and freight to and from Mangere, the expected increase in volume will further add to our traffic woes and fail to effectively deal with processing hold-ups.

News of an urgent meeting being called to address declining listings on the New Zealand Stock Exchange is not unexpected. The deteriorating position has been long in the making and is indicative of growing foreign buy-up of listed companies.

The inevitable decline to the a stage where a local bourse is no longer viable, while unpalatable in most people’s mind, may be inevitable in the absence of unlikely Government intervention.

Such a development provides further evidence of a hollowing out of our economy and increasing dependence on our nearest neighbour with strategic decisions being taken in Melbourne or Sydney. This will lead for further integration with Australia as a preferable option to becoming beholden to more remote owners with less appreciation of our business culture.

What differentiates Tony Falkenstein from the rank and file of entrepreneurs is his adherence to traditional business ethics and integrity.

When others would have thought nothing of walking away from their business failure and leaving their creditors out of pocket, Tony made and kept a commitment to repay everybody in full. He did this in spite of a general acceptance that risk taking with limited liability is an accepted business characteristic regardless of the consequences.

It seems today many business entrepreneurs are blasé to the fact their actions affect lives of others and find it easy to walk away. What is more alarming as a society we are beginning to tolerate this kind of behaviour.

Three events in quick succession raise serious doubts about the ability of the New Zealand Police to deal effectively with critical situations and should be of concern to the business community.

The Clint Rickard saga stands out as an HR disaster that has been allowed to get out of hand. The Pumpkin case calls into question the competence of the investigating unit who can learn lessons from several popular US crime dramas screening nightly on our main TV channels. The Putaruru stand-off is another example of lack of preparedness in trying to defuse a dangerous incident with volatile consequences.

Carbon Credits that translate into charges on business consumers have not featured as prominently in the media as expected.

We acknowledge the initiative of Radio New Zealand National in affording us the opportunity on Morning Report to state publicly our reservations on behalf of small business.

We based our case on the low incident of environmentally damaging activities secure in the knowledge that two-thirds of active micro-enterprises operate out of residential areas in skill and intellectual services with zero emissions.

Small manufacturing, trade based and retail businesses make a minuscule contribution compared with the farming sector, which on past record has very successfully used its lobbying muscle as a strategic export dominant industry to stave off any meaningful government imposition.

Do we really need so many tertiary students?
Are our tertiary qualifications of an acceptable standard?

There are major shortages in the trades, and an oversupply of tertiary education providers. Is it really necessary for a country of more than 4 million people to have more than eight universities, twenty polytechnics and institutes of technology, two colleges of education and three wananga.

The growth in numbers of people undertaking tertiary education has risen substantially over the past decade. Enrolments in tertiary education institutions have increased by more than 30 per cent over the last six years.