SkyCity chairman: no basis for gloom

SkyCity Entertainment Group chairman Rob Campbell has questioned the motives of peers who are talking down business confidence.

In a speech to the Palmerston North Chamber of Commerce, Campbell, a former trade unionist who has risen to be one of New Zealand’s leading professional directors, said there was ‘‘no real foundation’’ for a plunge in the mood of business.

The latest quarterly survey of business opinion (QSBO), released on July 3, said businesses were more gloomy about their prospect than at any time since the Christchurch earthquake.

But Campbell said he did not share the pessimistic view and it was ‘‘important that we in business do not talk ourselves and others into something for which there is no real foundation’’.

Campbell said he had a wide range of business interests, ranging from gambling to electricity distribution.

‘‘If the economy was in real trouble or investment and business operation was becoming more difficult you would think I might notice it. I don’t.’’

Campbell pointed to one of the major contradictions in business, which was that although business leaders and economists espoused competition, deep down, they wished they didn’t have to face it. Like unions, they wanted to bind together for strength.

He invoked the writing of Adam Smith, often regarded as the father of economics, who claimed that when people of a similar trade spoke to each other, the result tended to be a conspiracy to raise prices.

‘‘This is why I am sceptical when people purport to talk on behalf of industry interests or gather to lobby governments on that basis,’’ he said.

‘‘I just can’t shake the thought that Smith was right and that what is happening is that someone is trying to leverage an advantage against the rest of us.’’

Although Campbell declined to say who he was referring to, he said it was ‘‘endemic in our economic and political systems’’.

The Employers and Manufacturers Association and Business Central, both of which are major members of business advocacy body BusinessNZ, have attacked the Government’s plans for employment law reform.

Kirk Hope, chief executive of BusinessNZ, welcomed Campbell’s positive views on business.

‘‘But it’s not true that business representative organisations are promoting low business confidence. They are merely reflecting what they are being told by members face to face every day, and in surveys,’’ he said.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson said Campbell’s ‘‘thoughtful’’ writing represented optimistic views he was hearing from the business community.

‘‘However, I recognise not everyone shares this view. We are continuing to develop our partnerships with business to make the economy more productive, sustainable and inclusive.’’

Meanwhile, Campbell said New Zealand had an economic and political system that rates highly, relatively strong infrastructure, relatively low tax rates, and relatively strong education levels.

‘‘You might almost think it was a good place to do business. Certainly, people in other countries think so, though they may not often think about it at all given our size and global location. Few would not like our version of the important factors I have noted,’’ Campbell said.

‘‘We face a generally supportive and benign environment. The various frustrations which we all feel about bureaucratic compliance and other regulations are well less than in most other places in the world.

‘‘When business-sector spokespeople start whingeing or politicians start point-scoring often our best response is to tell them to ‘get real’.’’

‘‘If the economy was in real trouble or investment and business operation was becoming more difficult you would think I might notice it. I don’t.’’ SkyCity chairman and former union boss Rob Campbell, above