ROB CAMPBELL : BUSINESS HAS NOTHING TO FEAR FROM LABOUR

Loyal supporters of the Labour Party think that the possible election of a Labour-led government later this month will represent a break with the past. But the business sector has a far more clearer assessment of the political character of the Labour Party. The new chairperson of Sky City, Rob Campbell, says that business has little to fear from a Labour-led government and that "businesses that are good businesses will still be able to do well under everything I've seen from the Labour Party."

Rob Campbell : Business has nothing to fear from Labour.

LAST WEEK the editor of The Daily Blog, Martyn Bradbury, was blowing smoke about how the 'rich and powerful' were rattled by the prospect of a Labour-led government. He wrote:

"Watch as the National Party dirty politics attack machine goes ballistic. The fictitious $11 billion hole that doesn’t exist is just a taste of how vicious the rich and powerful get when they are suddenly threatened with losing power."

I responded to that post here.

Further evidence of the 'rich and powerful' not getting rattled by the prospect of a Labour-led government has been provided by business leader Rob Campbell.

He's the new chairperson of Sky City as well as being the chairman of retirement village operator Summerset Group, and campervan rental company Tourism Holdings, and is a director of commercial property investor Precinct Properties New Zealand.

He told the NZ Herald's Fran O'Sullivan that the business sector was entirely comfortable about a change of government.

" The element of fear that was in the business community about a Labour/Green Government, I think, is well gone. Businesses that are good businesses will still be able to do well under everything I've seen from the Labour Party."

Displaying an obvious lack of viciousness when 'threatened with losing power', Campbell - unlike Labourites like Bradbury - recognise that there is little difference between National and Labour. He told O'Sullivan:

"Business doesn't necessarily do better under National led Governments,"

Campbell even went on to suggest that business would welcome a new government led by Jacinda Ardern:

"There is an increasing recognition among the business community and the wider community that things have got a little stale. If I can use a word from a previous National Prime Minister, maybe we need to be a bit more aspirational."

And for those who think that the presence of the Green Party in any coalition government might go some way to ameliorating the excesses of Labour's neoliberal policies, its worth reflecting on Campbell's comment that "the Greens have improved their standing in the business community, removing the concern about a Labour/Green coalition."

Rob Campbell will be familiar to some. He is a former unionist and was a member of the Labour Party executive when Labour was elected in 1984.

During that time he was a member of a steering committee that oversaw the privatisation of NZ Post and the sale of the government printing business to Graeme Hart, who later became New Zealand's first billionaire.