Creating business rules that work

Become part of our brains trust

This website has been created by the Ministry of Economic Development to give businesses, particularly small and medium-sized companies, a say in the formulation of rules and regulations that affect them directly.

The number and diversity of New Zealand's small enterprises can be a barrier to getting the right feedback, but the economic importance of those businesses makes the process essential. By helping us make regulations more effective we can improve the business environment that your business operates in.

If you'd like an ongoing say in how business regulations are structured, you can register here as one of our consultants.

There are two types of consultant role available:

Direct Consultants: Government agencies contact you directly for your feedback on current or proposed legislation.

Indirect Consultants: MED contacts you by email asking for your feedback about current or proposed legislation.

In both cases you will only be approached about issues relevant to your nominated areas of regulatory interest. We want to hear from you because we want your business to be successful.

How the consultation process works

When a government agency wants feedback from consultants on the MED database, it writes to us clearly identifying the relevant subject area. Then:

  • We give the government agency the names of our Direct Consultants who have expressed an interest in that area of regulation;
  • We post a link on our Consultations page to the government agency's website where details of the issue can be found;
  • We email our Indirect Consultants who have expressed an interest in that area of regulation and supply them with a web link to the information.

The government agencies concerned can only request feedback on their specific area of concern, use the resulting data once, and they cannot share the contact details with other agencies.

These rules are strictly enforced by MED.

Your understanding

By registering your interest in being consulted, you also accept that:

  1. Government agencies are not required to use this website to consult; and while agencies may consult with a database member, the respondent's views may not always be reflected in the outcome of the consultation;
  2. Your information will be stored on the Business Consultation Database website by the Ministry of Economic Development and may be shared with other government agencies for consultation purposes;

You can change your details or be removed at any time by emailing membership@businessconsultation.govt.nz .