Introduction
Quality Regulation Review
The Quality Regulation Review was announced in May 2006 as part of the Labour-led government's commitment to ensuring that New Zealand's regulatory environment supports business growth.
The Review's specific objectives were to:
- address issues that arise from duplication or inconsistency (across regimes), uncertainty or inconsistency (within regimes), and excessive paperwork requirements;
- reduce the regulatory burden on business; and
- improve regulatory outcomes.
Sector studies
To ensure the Review delivered on its objectives we engaged with businesses directly in order to understand how regulatory requirements impact on them – and how this could be improved. The sector studies were an important part of this approach. They involved interviewing 136 businesses about their experiences in complying with regulation, and eliciting potential solutions to address issues.
The sectors selected for study were horticulture, hospitality, retail, and wine. Each of those sectors makes a significant contribution to economic growth.
The horticulture sector, including downstream service industries, permanently employs 50,000 New Zealanders, and another 40,000 seasonal workers. Domestic sales are worth approximately $2.5 billion. Horticultural exports have grown dramatically in the past 25 years, and are now worth approximately $2.3 billion, compared to $115 million in 1980. The most significant horticulture industries, in terms of exports, are kiwifruit (31%), wine (19%), apples (17%) and vegetables (11% processed/frozen and 9% fresh).
New Zealand's hospitality sector is made up of more than 17,000 enterprises and employs more than 117,000 workers. The food service component is New Zealand's number one retail employer and industry sales grew by $354 million (10%) from 2004 to 2005.
More than 325,000 people are employed either part- or full-time in the retail sector, which represents about 20% of the national workforce. There are 49,000 outlets which account for over $50 billion of sales annually. Retail sales performed strongly in the period September 1999 – September 2005 with actual growth rates ranging from 5.4% to 7.5% per annum.
The wine sector has experienced unprecedented growth in recent years. New Zealand has more than 530 wineries – up from 130 in 1990. Vineyard areas, now 22,000ha, are expected to increase by 2,000ha annually and reach 30,000ha by 2010. There are nearly 900 independent grape growers, and the industry also involves a large number of supporting businesses including glass and packaging material suppliers, transport firms, and contract labouring firms. For the first time, sales exceeded 100 million litres for the June 2006 year end, with total sales reaching 108 million litres. There was particular growth in exports, which were up by 12% in volume and 18% in value. New Zealand exported 57.8 million litres of wine worth $512.4 million in the 12 months to June 2006, with major markets being the UK, the US and Australia.
This report is structured around six themes summarising issues associated with:
- duplication;
- inconsistency;
- insufficient information;
- complex, onerous or unclear accountability;
- risk insensitivity; and
- timeliness.
Under the theme headings are:
- a short discussion of the theme;
- a summary of the issues;
- "How business sees it" – sample issues identified during the interview process, including some solutions proposed by interviewees; and
- examples of departmental initiatives to address the theme.
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