Continuing our tour of BR in far-off places, here is New Zealand, a country known since the 1980s for its commitment to regulatory reform. New Zealand has historically experienced cycles of economic de- and re-regulation and debate has tended to focus on the heavy or light-handedness of settings. After a period of significant deregulation and public sector reorganisation in the 1980s, the emphasis of regulatory policy is now on quality management and the maintenance of robust regulatory frameworks across all sectors. A Productivity Commission was established in 2010.
Red tape reduction was launched in 2009 but has not yet yielded its full potential. A government long term report stated "as much as a third of the income gap to Australia could be closed if we were able to move New Zealand to world best practice across all the major areas of regulation". Voluminous new legislation continues to be issued. Though NZ scores well in some international surveys such as the World Bank's Doing Business index, the effects of regulations such as the Resource Management Act or the regulation of network industries, are not covered. Business representatives claim that New Zealand scores poorly in surveys for the restrictiveness of hiring and firing regulations. Though a number of measures have been taken recently, for instance for minor construction authorizations, or marketing some pharmaceutical products, cutting red tape for business is not sufficiently high on the agenda. See business forum communiqué.
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