Robert MacCulloch
Robert MacCulloch is a native of New Zealand and worked at the Reserve Bank of NZ before he travelled to the UK to complete a PhD in Economics at Oxford University.
What do the partners in the city law firms earn in NZ? Reputedly incomes way over a million dollars a year. A bunch of them took the wage subsidy, even though business boomed for many of their firms during the lockdowns as they were called upon to sort out disputes, like who should pay the rent on commercial buildings.
They never disclosed their incomes, since partnerships don’t have to disclose their accounts publicly. They hid behind a wall of silence. Most only returned the subsidy after Sir Roger Douglas and myself called them out in the media. You can read the story here. Many repaid the day after we put them on the front page news – not before.
Lawyers dominate our boardrooms, even though most have no industry specific knowledge – whether its the Big Banks, Kiwi Rail, or Fletchers. You name a monopoly in NZ and you will likely find the boardroom stacked with lawyers. It’s a proper old boys and old girls club. Chapman Tripp threatened Auckland University with defamation unless it took down an article written by a colleague of mine about Foodstuff's monopoly powers. Lawyers, more than any other group, are putting up the cost of living in NZ.
Now the King’s Counsels have written a letter saying that much of the Constitution of this country is only entitled to be written by judges – no one else is allowed to tell us what are the “principles” behind the Treaty – even though most Kiwis don’t believe such principles even exist. Forget Māori having a say in the matter. Forget parliament. Let alone plumbers, shopkeepers, doctors, nurses, builders, teachers, or engineers. None of us count.
Why has the letter that King’s Counsels wrote to the PM, quoted in parliament by MP Willie Jackson, gone and wrecked the Kiwi economy? Because it has thrown into chaos the security and clarity of our property rights and, as this year’s Economics Nobel Prize reminded us, it is that security and clarity that determines long-run productivity growth.
My advice to investors, domestic or foreign, is to not invest in NZ. Why? Since a bunch of self-interested lawyers and their judge mates now run the show in this country. They’re playing those who identify as Māori off against those identifying as non-Māori, all for their fee income. Wait until the big law firms bleed the iwi trusts dry, since those firms thrive on disputes and now have whole departments set up to “advise” the trusts. It is judges who are writing the legal principles which now govern the economic incentives faced by all of us – that affect the opportunities of our children. How hard to work as a student is now dictated by NZ’s legal profession – since university places and jobs have come to be decided on how much applicants align with the chosen constitutional “principles” our judges have decided upon.
New Zealand’s legal profession has got too big for its boots. The King’s Counsels who wrote to PM Luxon should disclose their incomes, since they have entered the political arena, and in that arena you must disclose your finances so people can work out your conflicts of interest. What did the counsels earn during Covid, when the rest of the country suffered? How much have they siphoned off the Māori economy as fee income? Go on, tell us. Of course you won’t. You will just go and slink back into the darkness and leave none of us not knowing where you are coming from.
This article was originally published by Down to Earth Kiwi.
