Mike's Minute: The CRD was always counter-productive

Ah the lament.

Poor, old RNZ's obituary of the climate-related disclosures (CRD) makes you weep.

"New Zealand guts climate policy it bragged about to the world".

That's their headline.

What's misleading about the headline is the Government who “gutted” it isn't the Government who bragged about it.

As for the gutting and the world leading - "world leading" in what sense? We were simply the first to the line with a pointless idea.

The first country, if you believe it, was the previous Government that made it increasingly hard to get foreign money invested in the country because they had just produced another hurdle.

It included all banks, insurers and listed companies - what for?

It's very labour to just rope everyone in whether its relevant or not.

Why didn’t they make us all write climate reports? We all have a footprint.

Airlines? Sure, they have a lot of emissions. Tell us about them in your annual report.

Issues for insurance companies? Surely they would have done it anyway, given that’s their business?

But Turners, as in cars and Tina, raised relevant issues;

1) It wasn’t similar to Australia,

2) They opened themselves up to prosecution,

3) It cost a fortune to get someone to write all the mumbo jumbo that for many companies wasn’t remotely necessary.

Even MBIE wrote a report saying the costs of all this nonsense were prohibitive. But don't worry - as long as we are "world leading"!

What Labour never understood, and I doubt they do now, is putting the cost of business up is counter productive. Having our competitors outpace us because we are bogged down is counter productive.
 
Even if we all wrote glorious page after page after page about our footprints and climate intent, what difference did any of it make to the environment?

What got changed? Or saved? Or solved?

The tragedy was too much of the media got sucked in, and clearly still does, to the “feels”.

All you had to say was "look, it's a world first! A climate world first!"

And you had them hook, line and sinker.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ah the lament for Old Radio New Zealand's obituary of
the CRD makes you weep climate related disclosures. Here was
their headline yesterday, New Zealand guts climate policy. It bragged
about to the world. That's your headline. What's misleading about
that headline? As the government who gutted it isn't the
government who bragged about it. They're two different governments. As

(00:22):
for the gutting and the world leading, world leading in what?
In what sense? We were simply the first to the
line with a pointless idea the first country if you
believe this government that made it increasingly hard to get
foreign money invested into our country because they just produced
another hurdle. All banks, insurers, enlisted companies. What for it's
very labor isn't it just to rope everybody in whether
it's relevant or not. Why didn't they make us all

(00:44):
right climate reports about ourselves. I mean, we've all got
a climate footprint. Airlines, sure lot of emissions. Tell us
about them in your annual report. I get that issues
through insurance company. Surely they would have done it anyway,
given that's basically their business. But turners, good on turners.
You know as in the cars as raise relevant issues. One,
it wasn't similar to Australia, way easier in Australia. We

(01:04):
were hobbling ourselves too. They opened themselves up to prosecution.
This is directors and things like that. Three, it cost
a fortune to get someone to write all the mumbo
jumbo that for many companies wasn't remotely necessary. Even MB
wrote a report saying the cost of all as nonsense
were prohibitive. But don't worry as long as we're world leading.
What Labour never understood, no doubt they still do now
is putting the cost of business up is counterproductive. Having

(01:27):
our competitors outpace us because we're bogged down is counterproductive.
And even if we all wrote glorious page page page,
page page after page about our footprints and climate intent,
what difference did any of it make to the environment,
What got changed or saved or solved? The tragedy was

(01:48):
too much of the media got sucked into clearly still
does sucked into the fields. I mean, all you had
to do was say, look, it's a world first and
then mix the words in climate world first, and you
had them hook line and sinker. For more from the
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