Chambers train spotlight on economic future

Press, 27 November 1980, Page 25

Chambers train spotlight on economic future

The New Zealand Chambers of Commerce have launched a major campaign to focus national discussion on the directions New Zealand must take to secure its economic future. Called "Enterprise New Zealand,” the programme calls on all sections of the community to reappraise the] attitudes that have given! rise to what the Chambers see as “The web of restrictions and criticisms that hamper enterprising New Zealanders.”

The Enterprise New Zealand programme will be placed in the spotlight at a national convention in Auckland next month.

"Enterprise New Zealand” is really about freedom, the Executive Vice-President of the New Zealand Chambers of Commerce (Mr Alan R. Simm) said. “It is about the freedom not only of business to make profits, but also the freedom of trade unions to engage in collective bargaining, the freedom of individual workers to change their jobs when they want to, the freedom of consumers to choose the goods they want .— not the goods that someone tells them they have. . . “These freedoms are not .real without equality of opportunity — and “Enterprise New Zealand” aims to bring home to people the interdependence of equality of opportunity, and personal freedom.•

“Free enterprise is the right — and the opportunity to open a petrol station or .grocery store or buy a farm if you want to be your own boss, or to change your job if you don’t like the man j’ou work for. < . >

» “It is the right to lock your door at night, without agents of the State invading •your privacy; it is the right lo argue; it is the right to ■save your money if you ■want or to blow it on a good time.

i “Free enterprise means ■the right to be yourself instead of a nameless ■ number.” ! Mr Simm said that “Enterprise New Zealand” 'would bring home to New ! Zealanders how many of these rights and freedoms had already been eroded, how many more were in real danger of being lost, and how the challenges of the future could only be met by reinforcing freedom — not by restricting it further. The convention is aimed at examining and generating discussion on the role of private enterprise in New Zealand. It has attracted top speakers from Britain, the United States, West Germany, Australia, and New Zealand.

The organisers expect participation from a wide crosssection of the community; The programme is supported ! by all major business organ- : isations and trade union injvolvement in the convention is also evident — one of the speakers at the Auckland convention is a trade union industrial officer, Mr Rod Trott.

Other speakers include Professor Myron Roomkin, associate professor of Industrial Relations and Urban Affairs at Chicago’s Northwestern University. Dr Eva Odehnal, director of a West German association of 5000 business owners and entrepreneurs, Mr John H. Valder, former ' chairman of the Australian Associated Stock Exchanges and Mr Michael Ivens, director of the Free Enterprise Organisation, London. ' Further speakers include Mr Allen Dawson of the Australian Chamber of Commerce, Mr Clair Vough, head of Productivity Research International, Dr Harold Bell, chief economist of the AMP Society, and the Chief Justice of New Zealand (Sir Ronald Davison). The convention chairman will be Mr Rod Weir, chairman and managing director

of Crown Consolidated, Ltd, and individual session chairmen include the presidents of the N.Z. Manufacturers Federation, N.Z. Employers Federation, N.Z. Retailers Federation, NZ. Chambers of Commerce, and rthe vicepresident of the Institute oi Directors, N.Z. division.

Matters to be discussed include Government economic policies, the role of unions, productivity and management responsibility, education, and individual liberties. Chairman of the “Enterprise New Zealand” committee is Mr D. A. Graham, General Manager of Union Maritime Services, Ltd. He heads a national committee comprising some of New Zealand’s top businessmen. , “Business in New Zealand has never spoken with one; voice on the problems we' face,” he said. “If we are to provide jobs and economic security for the next generation, it is vital that business stops 'sitting back and taking it’ and begins to put a logical, clear; case for economic freedom,”! he said.

He said that few people today were aware of the dif-i ficulties New Zealand busi-i ness faced in dealing with! the restrictions placed upon; it in doing the job it was intended to do: providing the goods and services that the people want. “We are not a political org a n i s a t i o n , ” said Mr ■ Graham, “and we have no political party axe to grind. We believe that New Zea-i land has an exciting future.; All that is required is the! freedom to take hold of the opportunities that are all around us.” i

“There are plenty of pessimists willing to preach gloom and doom. We believe that New Zealand has a chance to break free of economic gloom — just by giving New Zealanders themselves the freedom to take hold of the opportunities.”' ■ ■ . .