There are two reasons why I would not want to live in Australia. Firstly we hold the Rugby World Cup and secondly, they are trapped in the 1970’s. Air New Zealand and Gary Toomey (from his pacific hideaway) must be watching Qantas’ actions with great interest and a wry smile. While Ansett did have many problems of its own (including being the only airline in the world to have to fly 767’s with a three person flight crew including an engineer to meet union requirements!), many successful New Zealand businesses have crossed the ditch and failed or struggled. To a greater or lesser degree, the difficulties have not been due to poor products or business models, but the differences in labour law and the general work force psyche around job security becoming strong barriers to change and in some cases proving too much.
I was working for a New Zealand based company located in Australia when Individual Employment Agreements came in during the late 90’s. The local Australian’s could not comprehend that I may be doing the same role as the person next to me without knowing that we were paid the same rate. Imagine tomorrow bringing your team into one room and telling them that from Monday they will all be paid the same hourly rate? Fortunately this is far from the employment environment that we operate in today in New Zealand.
Sometimes I think we take for granted some of the advantages that we have living and working in New Zealand. We do face endless debates on employee protection whilst trying to balance this with providing a flexible enough environment to allow employers to shape and grow their businesses. Have we got the balance right? Possibly, however the laws are too complicated and the cost of compliance is too high. Let’s hope some changes in November bring about some simplicity and that we continue to ride ahead of the wave in becoming a growth economy.
^DB
