In his Paradise Reforged (2001), James Belich contended that Roger Douglas had failed to account for what he (Belich) called New Zealand's "endemic cartelism." In other words, if we privatise things, or go from what some bureaucrat thinks is fair, e.g. housing as a human right or electricity as a public utility, to what the market will bear, the result will be a cosy extractive oligopoly tightening the screws on a geographically captive market. In other countries, a market is regarded as competitive if if has six or more players of significant market share; here, we just about never get beyond four, and often, of course, it is only two.
OK that’s the problem, beautifully articulated, Bryce. What’s the fix? None of the major political parties can be relied upon for genuine reform. Daylight does not separate National, Labour or the baubled NZF. ACT are the high priests of The Rot. The Greens are down the rabbit hole with Alice on a bad acid trip, and TPM are consumed with loathing for anyone not of their own kind in the NZ waka. I digress … Three-yearly elections are too blunt a corrective instrument. The gods forbid that we should have four-yearly electoral cycles. Defenestration is still illegal. Pity. I dream of a government legislating for crimes against New Zealanders and crimes against New Zealand. No chance of that with the current crop of rotters, is there?
Belich is a very perceptive historian. I recently read his The World The Plague Made and it was amazing to see him turn his great talent away from NZ and right into global history.
Agree totaly - thanks very much for these columns Bryce, which spell out very clearly what has been happening in NZ for the last 40 years.
I'm sick of saying "this isn't the NZ that I grew up in" but we can't turn back to clock, and I don't know what the practical steps would be to change, although the Green's economic strategy offers some hope
Membership of the NZ Initiative (the rebranded Business Round Table) shows the 'chumocracy' in action. There are small companies given equal display spaces on their website, but the dominant players in the sectors below are no doubt the major funders for 'research' and providers of input for lobbying. Thanks, Bryce, for these regular reminders about the extent to which New Zealand is undermined by excessive rent seeking by duopolies.
Banking: ASB, ANZ, BNZ Westpac
Supermarkets: Foodstuffs, Woolworths
Building: Fletchers, Rank (which owns Carter Holt Harvey)
You are a little too young to have experienced any of this last time around. The players were different but the Trotters in the Trough, Snout in the Swill school of political economy is nothing new for New Zealand - and is why at least some of us were so supportive of the 1984+ reforms at the time in an effort to shake free of it. (Little did we know...) Well done on calling it out, all the same.
I have added a comment arguing that Belich put his finger on this issue via the concept of "endemic cartelism," which basically requires some kind of seriously countervailing power, regulators with teeth, because we will just never have six competing firms in every industry. What else do we expect, on a rock in the sea?
A simple example: the provisions in the RMA intentionally exclude trade competition (subsequently made much more explicit in Part 11A: Act not to be used to oppose trade competitors in 2009 amendment). This was to kill off the infamous 'supermarket circus' under the former Town & Country Planning Act 1977, whereby the same lawyers acting for the same supermarkets (and petrol stations) followed the Planning Tribunal around the country alternatively arguing for and against granting consents for new supermarkets on 'economic grounds' to prevent competitors establishing.
I read in a book recently "the next big thing is small". I wonder if rebuilding local economies province by province is what we should consider. Is it time for the South Island to start thinking as a unit of our economy? To think beyond the property markets of Queenstown and Wanaka? Christchurch, where I live, is seen as a "go-to" place. However, as I walked through the middle of the city recently the lights were on few of the new units. They sit idle the property of investors waiting for a tax-free capital gain, as the poor sleep in the shop windows. How do we ignite the innovation of those with ideas and talent who live here because it's a good place to live and bring up families. It's time we ignored political parties obsessed with Auckland. Keep up the challenging writing, Bryce.
Thanks Bryce - keep it up please in the hopes that some readers are actually in positions to maybe begin small changes that may eventually become larger ones. To one who lives in a smallish town what you spell out so succinctly is truly frightening. If all your readers wrote to MPs protesting the lack of transparency in lobbying etc, at least they would know that many of us are unhappy. Do it - it does matter.
In his Paradise Reforged (2001), James Belich contended that Roger Douglas had failed to account for what he (Belich) called New Zealand's "endemic cartelism." In other words, if we privatise things, or go from what some bureaucrat thinks is fair, e.g. housing as a human right or electricity as a public utility, to what the market will bear, the result will be a cosy extractive oligopoly tightening the screws on a geographically captive market. In other countries, a market is regarded as competitive if if has six or more players of significant market share; here, we just about never get beyond four, and often, of course, it is only two.
OK that’s the problem, beautifully articulated, Bryce. What’s the fix? None of the major political parties can be relied upon for genuine reform. Daylight does not separate National, Labour or the baubled NZF. ACT are the high priests of The Rot. The Greens are down the rabbit hole with Alice on a bad acid trip, and TPM are consumed with loathing for anyone not of their own kind in the NZ waka. I digress … Three-yearly elections are too blunt a corrective instrument. The gods forbid that we should have four-yearly electoral cycles. Defenestration is still illegal. Pity. I dream of a government legislating for crimes against New Zealanders and crimes against New Zealand. No chance of that with the current crop of rotters, is there?
Belich is a very perceptive historian. I recently read his The World The Plague Made and it was amazing to see him turn his great talent away from NZ and right into global history.
Agree totaly - thanks very much for these columns Bryce, which spell out very clearly what has been happening in NZ for the last 40 years.
I'm sick of saying "this isn't the NZ that I grew up in" but we can't turn back to clock, and I don't know what the practical steps would be to change, although the Green's economic strategy offers some hope
Membership of the NZ Initiative (the rebranded Business Round Table) shows the 'chumocracy' in action. There are small companies given equal display spaces on their website, but the dominant players in the sectors below are no doubt the major funders for 'research' and providers of input for lobbying. Thanks, Bryce, for these regular reminders about the extent to which New Zealand is undermined by excessive rent seeking by duopolies.
Banking: ASB, ANZ, BNZ Westpac
Supermarkets: Foodstuffs, Woolworths
Building: Fletchers, Rank (which owns Carter Holt Harvey)
Energy: Genesis, Mercury, Meridian, Contact, Vector.
You are a little too young to have experienced any of this last time around. The players were different but the Trotters in the Trough, Snout in the Swill school of political economy is nothing new for New Zealand - and is why at least some of us were so supportive of the 1984+ reforms at the time in an effort to shake free of it. (Little did we know...) Well done on calling it out, all the same.
I have added a comment arguing that Belich put his finger on this issue via the concept of "endemic cartelism," which basically requires some kind of seriously countervailing power, regulators with teeth, because we will just never have six competing firms in every industry. What else do we expect, on a rock in the sea?
A simple example: the provisions in the RMA intentionally exclude trade competition (subsequently made much more explicit in Part 11A: Act not to be used to oppose trade competitors in 2009 amendment). This was to kill off the infamous 'supermarket circus' under the former Town & Country Planning Act 1977, whereby the same lawyers acting for the same supermarkets (and petrol stations) followed the Planning Tribunal around the country alternatively arguing for and against granting consents for new supermarkets on 'economic grounds' to prevent competitors establishing.
I read in a book recently "the next big thing is small". I wonder if rebuilding local economies province by province is what we should consider. Is it time for the South Island to start thinking as a unit of our economy? To think beyond the property markets of Queenstown and Wanaka? Christchurch, where I live, is seen as a "go-to" place. However, as I walked through the middle of the city recently the lights were on few of the new units. They sit idle the property of investors waiting for a tax-free capital gain, as the poor sleep in the shop windows. How do we ignite the innovation of those with ideas and talent who live here because it's a good place to live and bring up families. It's time we ignored political parties obsessed with Auckland. Keep up the challenging writing, Bryce.
Bloody good article here. Cheers Bryce.
And the really uncomfortable truth is the pigeons aren’t coming home to roost, they’ve arrived.
What was it Roger Douglas was trying to change in 1987? Was pre-1984 similar to now?
Thanks Bryce - keep it up please in the hopes that some readers are actually in positions to maybe begin small changes that may eventually become larger ones. To one who lives in a smallish town what you spell out so succinctly is truly frightening. If all your readers wrote to MPs protesting the lack of transparency in lobbying etc, at least they would know that many of us are unhappy. Do it - it does matter.
Thank you for spelling it out.