The Dunes Symposium

Today and tomorrow I am attending The Dunes Symposium on Waiheke Island, so will be blogging about some of the sessions.

The symposium is not primarily for members of the actual BRT, but for new and emerging business leaders, and is a sort of introduction to public policy issues, and how they can impact business. The opening session had a good quote from James Madison in 1788:

If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself. A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.

Following that stressed that the majority of interactions today are voluntary co-operation, but when there is market failure, intervention can be justified. The test should be whether the intervention actually produces more benefits than costs.

We have sessions later today on constraining government regulation and an economic state of the nation analysis by a former Treasury Secretary. Tomorrow addressees by a Labour and National Party candidate, a university debating team debate on if Australia is the luckier country, a tax policy session, a Maori Economic Development session, and a session on the buy back of Rail.  I really enjoy these policy discussions and debates, so always appreciate when I get to attend.