Revisiting the State and the Market Conference Booklet (2911.3KB)
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Revisiting the State and the Market A New Zealand Governance Conference The University of Auckland Business School Friday 28 October 2011 Owen G Glenn Building 12 Grafton Rd Auckland Revisiting the State and the Market The relationship between the state and the market is in the spotlight again in New Zealand. Particular issues surrounding the proposals around partial privatisation and public-private partnerships will be examined in this one day conference by international and local speakers drawn from a range of disciplines. Revisiting the State and the Market conference details: Date: 28 October 2011 Time: 9am - 5pm Venue: The University of Auckland Business School, Decima Glenn Room, Level 3, Owen G Glenn Building, 12 Grafton Road, Auckland Host: New Zealand Governance Centre Contact info: Phone Pam Kam on +64 9 923 1286 Contact email: [email protected] For further information please contact: [email protected] or telephone +64 9 923 1286 Keynote speakers include: • Professor Graeme Hodge of Monash University • Professor John Farrar of Bond University and The University of Auckland • Professor Michael Regan of Bond University • Adrian Noon of the Office of Government Owned Corporations, Queensland Treasury Opening and welcome address Professor Greg Whittred (Dean, The University of Auckland Business School) Professor Greg Whittred was appointed the Dean of The University of Auckland Business School in July 2008. Professor Whittred has held senior positions at the University of Sydney and the Australian Graduate School of Management. He has held visiting professorial appointments at leading international business schools in the United States, England, Hong Kong and China. In May 2011, the Auckland Council invited Professor Whittred to join the newly-formed Business Advisory Panel. The 24-member panel has been set up to advise the Mayor and Council on plans, policies and the economic development strategy for the city. Last month, Professor Whittred was invited to join the Māori Economic Development Review Panel which has been established to report to Māori Affairs Minister, Dr Pita Sharples and Economic Development Minister, David Carter with a Māori economic development strategy and action plan by July 2012. Professor Whittred holds a Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) from the University of Queensland, a Master of Economics from the University of Sydney and a PhD from the Australian Graduate School of Management, University of New South Wales. Speaker: Professor Graeme Hodge (Monash University, Director of the Monash Centre for Regulatory Studies) Professor Graeme Hodge is the Director governance brings new conceptions to the meaning of regulation itself, of the Monash Centre for Regulatory and assists our understanding of how over the past few decades the Studies in the Law Faculty at Monash modern state has developed. These both have implications for how we University. Professor Hodge was the interpret questions central to contemporary government. For example, founding Director of the Monash Centre what do we now know about the effectiveness of privatisation, and of part for Privatisation and Public Accountability. privatisation? To what extent are the performance promises of its cousin ‘public-private partnerships’ being met? And what are the implications of Professor Hodge has published in areas the regulatory governance lens as we now move forward in a post-GFC such as privatisation of public sector era? This paper suggests that even in a post-GFC environment, our beliefs enterprise, outsourcing or contracting around issues of ownership, the place of the state itself and how both out government services, public- the private and public sectors contribute to the economy and society are private partnerships and performance unlikely to change – indeed they are likely to harden and magnify. There is measurement and strategy in the public much that can be learned, however. And the era of regulatory governance sector. His expert commentary has been will encourage an array of questions around the role of the state; how sought by radio programs on ABC and 3AW as well as television programs the state acts as one of many regulators; on the availability of a wide such as the 7:30 Report, Stateline and Four Corners. range of regulatory tools; and on what tools work most effectively for the benefit of communities. Moving forward, it is hoped that regulatory Title lenses will encourage greater cross disciplinary thinking and a stronger Revisiting State and Market through Regulatory Governance: consideration of regulatory tools other than traditional command and Observations of Privatisation, Partnerships, Politics and Performance control regimes. In this light, policy activists, interest groups and citizens will all rightly continue to contest who is winning and who is losing from Abstract post-GFC reforms. This paper argues that the lens of regulatory governance is a potentially useful one in understanding the evolving state and its relationships to both the market sector and to civil society. The lens of regulatory Speaker: Adjunct Professor Mai Chen (The University of Auckland Business School, Founding Partner of Chen Palmer Public and Employment Law Specialists) Mai Chen is a founding partner of Title Chen Palmer New Zealand Public and New Zealand’s Experience Key to Asset Sales: The Public Law Issues Employment Law Specialists which she co-founded in 1994. She is currently Abstract writing the “Public law Tool Box” for publication by Lexis Nexis in early 2012. The government’s announcement to partially privatise four electricity She is an Adjunct Professor in Commercial companies and sell down the government’s stake in Air New Zealand and Public law at The University of if re-elected, raises key public law issues. The State Owned Enterprises Auckland Business School. Mai has been Act will likely no longer apply, which will impact on the operation of published widely, and is recognised as these assets. Is there a need for new legislation to govern these entities? a leading expert in strategic public law; New accountability frameworks, levers, and mechanisms will have to administrative law and judicial review; be developed to allow shareholding ministers to both protect the public regulation and legislation; law reform; interest and manage their controlling stake. Will these partially privatised public policy; public law tools; public SOEs continue to evolve over time, and if so how? sector restructuring and machinery of government issues. In October 2011 she was named the Next Magazine New Zealand Business Woman This presentation examines New Zealand’s experience with asset sales, of the Year. and investigates how the proposed part-privatisation of state-owned enterprises will impact on the present model and its operation. It also examines the likely form these new entities will take, and the impact their new structural arrangements will have on the applicability of key public law tools. Speakers: Professor Susan Watson (The University of Auckland Business School, Deputy Director of The New Zealand Governance Centre) Chye-Ching Huang (The University of Auckland Business School, Senior Lecturer) Title Corporatisation in New Zealand Abstract Partial privatisation of some state-owned enterprises is likely to take place in New Zealand from 2012 onwards. It is crucial that policymakers know what they are trying to achieve when undertaking privatization of state commercial enterprises. Different goals can indicate radically different design choices. For example, fiscal deleveraging indicates getting the best price possible, which may mean selling shares with as few restrictions on ownership and transfer as possible. By contrast, a goal of encouraging wider participation in domestic capital markets might indicate carrying out privatization in a way that does not maximize sale price, but that Susan Watson is a Professor of Commercial Law at The University of encourages many subscribers to small parcels in a listing. Furthermore, if Auckland. She researches and teaches in the areas of corporate law and policymakers do not make their rationales for privatization clear, it becomes corporate governance focussing on directors' liabilities and duties and the all too easy for any privatization experience to be painted as a “success” theory of the corporation. She has published in those areas both inside and on one measure or another, regardless of what was the intended objective. outside New Zealand. Susan is joint editor of the New Zealand Business Law Quarterly, New Zealand's leading business law journal and is deputy This paper examines the rationales that have been identified by the New director of the New Zealand Governance Centre. Zealand Treasury as possible reasons for New Zealand to undertake partial privatization of some of its SOEs. We find that some are more compelling Chye-Ching Huang is a Senior Lecturer at The University of Auckland Business than others, and that in sum, Treasury may understate the case for School. She has previously practised as a Tax Solicitor at Chapman Tripp and privatization, but by the same token understate the case for the Crown worked as a Research Associate at the non-partisan economic think tank, continuing to hold some (or even a majority) stake in the privatized entities. the New Zealand Institute. She is currently based in Washington DC with the non-partisan fiscal policy think tank, the Center on Budget and Policy. She The paper was written by Chye-Ching Huang, Jenny Chen and Professor holds