Stuff | 14 Nov 2021

OPINION: The seizure of a man’s asset by the Crown is serious business. Englishman have gone to war over this issue. More than once. The most significant was the First Barons’ War that lead to the Magna Carta.

This document had a number of clauses limiting the right of the King to take a chap’s assets.

Clause 30 was one such: No sheriff, royal official, or other person shall take horses or carts for transport from any free man, without his consent.

Today’s barons are much diminished. Confronted with a sovereign over-extending its powers, the realm of commerce is populated with the timid, cowardly and supine. They cry out for subsidies, vaccine mandates, and permission to open their storefronts.

READ MORE:
* Calls for Ministry of Health to apologise for saliva testing roll-out, thousands fewer tests than hoped for
* Ministry of Health gave saliva testing provider ‘the metaphorical finger’ during outbreak
* Big expansion to make ‘rigorous’ Covid testing a part of day-to-day life
* The saliva testing stoush between Rako Science and the Ministry of Health

Against such a backdrop of inadequacy, it was with delight that I stumbled across Leon Grice. How had I missed this gentleman?

Grice has had an interesting career; swapping between government and private enterprise; working for Murray McCully during the glory days of the Rugby World Cup and a stint as Consul General in Los Angeles.

In September 2020, he leveraged existing contacts to secure the New Zealand licence from Illinois University for Covid saliva testing.

Discussions with the Crown didn’t go well so Grice’s company, Rako Science, took their product to market.

According to Grice, his firm now does 15 per cent of all the tests done in the country. His clients include hospitals, Auckland Airport, and anyone who wants a quick and effective Covid analysis.

Now. Wellington wasn’t excited about saliva testing. Grice, when I interviewed him last week, believed this hesitancy slowed down his ability to get traction in the market, but his perseverance was rewarded with sales.

It seems Rako was too successful. The Crown is eyeing his business the way a lion eyes a baby deer. They want the right to confiscate Grice’s business and are going to pass a law that allows them to do just that, the Covid-19 Public Health Response Amendment Bill (No 2).

Tucked away in this insidious bit of law making is Section 11(1)(d) and (e). This allows the director-general, or the minister, of health to require “…the owner of any person in charge of a specified laboratory that undertakes Covid-19 testing…to undertake Covid-19 testing solely for the purposes of the public health response to Covid-19…”

It doesn’t end there. The laboratory can fall under the control of the requisite authorities for the duration of any order given.

I mean, it is nice to be wanted, just not in that way.

The owners of the laboratory will be entitled to compensation “…at the market rate for the consumables requisitioned.” Rako, remember, has contracts with its own clients. There is no requirement on the Crown to cover losses, or damages claims, for Rako being unable to perform these contracts.

We already have the Civil Defence Emergency Management Act. This allows for the state to requisition pretty much anything once a state of emergency is declared, but here is the difference.

First, a state of emergency is required, and second, under the Civil Defence law Rako would be entitled for compensation for “…any loss of or damage or injury to that requisitioned property suffered or incurred while under that control”, and later in that act, “…the diminution in value of any personal property that has been damaged.”

Now, you might think, so what? You don’t own a Covid-19 testing lab. Why does it matter if Covid Minister Chris Hipkins wants to pass a law giving him the right to march into Grice’s company and tell him how to run his business?

It matters for a number of reasons. First, it is unfair. Rako took a huge punt. They have invested in their business and they did so knowing that their capital could have been lost. They are entitled to the reward part of the risk-and-reward equation.

But second, this sets a new benchmark for how the Crown negotiates with private enterprise. It does not matter if this law is never used, it has the capacity to generate harm. As Dr Eric Crampton from the NZ Initiative pointed out in his submission on this bill; imagine someone deciding to invest in generators to supply in the case of a power crisis?

Once the blackouts arrive, the Crown can requisition the generators and pay only a ‘market price’. Knowing this, no rational business would make that investment and a vital service is lost.

Which brings me back to Grice. Most executives in the land of the Quivering White Cloud would hire a PR flunky, a lobbyist or some former Labour Party hack, and seek to massage the situation, keep a low profile and hope for the best.

Grice did not do that. He was alerted to this bill a mere six days before submissions closed. No doubt this was an honest oversight by the mandarins running this process. No matter. He fired off a submission so full of brio it leaps out and smacks you in the face.

“This is lazy legislation without thought to the damage it will do to New Zealand’s reputation or investment in additional testing capacity. Replace the words ‘testing laboratories’ with any other term and this is a template for state seizure, through requisition, at the whim of public officials.”

In dealing with the issue of compensation, Grice thunders “We would be better compensated by having a motorway driven through our contracted laboratory – as the Public Works Act has more generous compensation.”

We are dealing with a regime so consumed with the righteousness of their cause they are willing to discard traditions and customs won by the barons 800 years ago. Most business leaders have shown themselves to be craven, compliant and cowardly.

Grice went a different way. I expect he will be well rewarded, and his enterprise will be spared; bullies do not like to tackle those willing to punch back. New Zealand needs more like him.

– Damien Grant is a business owner based in Auckland. He writes from a libertarian perspective and is a member of the Taxpayers’ Union but not of any political party.