The collapse of cases against White Island Operators in the wake of the terrible volcanic explosion was always a quixotic gesture as Work Save scrambled to work out who was really at fault in our poorly regulated, poorly structured she’ll be right Capitalism.
The idea that we had been allowing tourists to traipse around a live active volcano was always fraught, but add in lax rules and someone had to be blamed for such a casual attitude towards safety.
That was the lesson from Pike River as well, our poorly regulated capitalism makes things voluntary rather than mandatory and its laxness is damaging the environments people work in.
Our worker death rate remains one of the worst in the OECD.
The limited number of inspectors MBIE has is about to be slashed if ACT and National win election, meaning our poorly policed regulations will become even more lax!
We’ve seen with the immigration exploitation recently the cost of lax regulation.
This lack of regulation doesn’t just risk lives, it mutates markets as well.
We’ve seen it in the Drainage Industry, the Supermarket Duopoly, the Petrol Oligopoly and many other industries where crony capitalism and market dominance rob consumers of actual competition.
If Labour win the next election, regulating capitalism and ensuring small to medium business can compete fairly in the domestic market is a must.
If the Right win, expect fewer regulations and far more Old Boy Crony Capitalism.
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