What's going on with all the delays

Thursday, August 24th 2006, 2:35PM

In less than 24 hours three major government projects in the financial services sector have been put back.
The Ministry of Economic Development, yesterday, said that it is giving another month for submissions on adviser regulation and today a raincheck has been given on KiwiSaver and tax changes.

A question one must ask is this: Are these policies such a mess that the government is about to start back peddling on them?
Put another way: Are they so ill-thought out and in urgent need of a rethink that extensions are a good way of buying time to find a fix?

My guess is no on KiwiSaver and possibly yes on tax.

Clearly there has been a time and capacity problem with regards to KiwiSaver and tax. It was always a short and tight timeframe so a delay is sensible.

Throwing in a sweetener of incentives has the look of seeing super move towards a compulsory regime.

I'll be interested to see who claims responsibility for the decisions.

I make this comment as I have seen some things said recently which are misleading. People don't get invited to make submissions to Parliamentary select committees on the strength of their submissions.

All you have to do is tick a box and say yes you would like to be heard in person. Plenty of awful submissions are presented in person to select committees.

On adviser regulation it's a little harder to get a fix on what's happening. The official view is that the MED discussion documents on financial products, due to be released next week, may change the landscape so submitters need time to consider them.

Another view is that the major association in the area is having trouble getting its members on side and needs more time.
It is hard to see the framework agreed on and approved by Cabinet changing too much.

But then again there maybe things in next week's documents which do make a material change to the landscape. Time will tell.
When all the announcements of the past 24-hours are taken into account it is fair to say that combined they are a major jolt to the industry.

Not all bad, but a shake all the same. Also a sign that big change is getting closer.

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