A week in advocacy 

NZ economy: unchartered waters
The NZ economy is ploughing through unchartered waters after Covid, according to the BusinessNZ Planning Forecast.  It shows large reductions in output in the June quarter, significant impacts on many sectors, and deeply negative business sentiment.  On the positive side, the economy is still in better shape than many other countries, with the ability to take on more debt if needed.

Lockdown powers lock down trade
Covid-19 destroyed jobs, but trade creates them, Kirk Hope says. Speaking at a Diplosphere forum yesterday the BusinessNZ CEO said Covid’s international job destruction had made the multilateral trading system even more important.  Internationally, lockdown powers constraining the movement of people and goods should be regularly reviewed to ensure they don’t unduly obstruct free trade and future growth, he said.

New employment law unhelpful
New employment law that comes into force tomorrow is unhelpful, BusinessNZ says.  An amendment to the Employment Relations Act will allow personal grievance cases to be taken against firms that contract employees from another firm (previously PGs were only possible against the actual employer).  The move will increase costs and reduce competitiveness for the contracting company and could lead to costly litigation over who is the actual employer, BusinessNZ says.  The use of temporary or seasonal contracted labour in construction, horticulture, hospitality and health is widespread in NZ.

Manslaughter conviction for directors
NZ directors will take note of Australia’s first conviction for corporate manslaughter.  Directors of a company whose employee died in a forklift accident received suspended jail terms and a $3 million fine.  The company didn't have any health & safety systems but had simply told employees to ‘work safely’.  NZ has no corporate manslaughter law, but health & safety law does require every workplace to have a system to eliminate or minimise all health & safety risks, and penalties including fines up to $3 million and imprisonment for up to 5 years. 

Consumers still value sustainability
Customers still value sustainability, perhaps more so, following Covid-19.  New Colmar Brunton research shows globally, customers want to support local businesses more, and want more labelling on products explaining how they can be recycled - some of the insights from a recent SBC webchat.

Becoming a supplier to government
Next week BusinessNZ hosts the first of a series of seminars on how to gain government procurement contracts and become a supplier to different government agencies.  Procurement seminars can be attended online or in person - please register here.

Final call for competitiveness survey
Business owners and executives are invited to take part in a survey on NZ’s competitiveness.  The survey for the World Economic Forum asks business people about their environment for doing business, and ranks countries’ competitiveness accordingly - last year NZ was judged 19^th most competitive economy in the world.  Please take part in the survey here to help find NZ’s competitiveness ranking for 2020.