Sunday 21st Nov 1999
Richard Prebble
Media Release -- Other

New Zealand benefited greatly from the elimination of wage, price, interest rate controls and import licensing in the 1980s and early 1990s. Since then, however, governments have found other ways of smothering productive people with red tape and bureaucracy. Compliance can cost large businesses millions of dollars each year and a disproportionate burden falls on the self-employed and small and medium-sized businesses. These businesses supply most of our jobs yet they are weighted down with regulations. ACT wants to eliminate unnecessary regulation and red tape and give businesses the freedom to create jobs and wealth.

ACT's goals · To ensure that all government regulations are subjected to a cost-benefit assessment · To create an environment in which businesses can operate without the hindrance of unnecessary and restrictive laws and regulations

ACT believes · The ability of businesses to create jobs and wealth is currently impaired by an excessive array of government rules and regulations · The Resource Management Act is proving unwieldy and costly to implement. Compliance with the RMA has become a bureaucratic nightmare and the process is too costly and uncertain

ACT will · Reform the Resource Management Act · Introduce a Regulatory Responsibility Act that would make it much more obvious in future if a proposed regulation had not been properly analysed, or was likely to do more harm than good · Require, by this Act, all regulatory proposals going to Cabinet to be accompanied by formal high quality cost-benefit assessments that identified the problem, the objective and all reasonable alternatives · Require, by this Act, the issue of compensation to be formally addressed whenever a regulation is proposed that would impair property rights · Review all major regulations in the last three decades that impose costs for uncertain benefits ENDS

For more information visit ACT online at http://www.act.org.nz or contact the ACT Parliamentary Office at act@parliament.govt.nz.

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