Seymour pitches NZ as global testing ground for new technology

ACT leader David Seymour wants New Zealand to become a global testing ground for emerging technologies by allowing companies to temporarily bypass regulations through a permanent regulatory exemption scheme.

Speaking in Christchurch on Thursday, Seymour said “Innovation Trials” — time-limited schemes where specific rules are suspended in a set region — should become a standing offer rather than an occasional tool.

The approach resembles so-called regulatory sandboxes, pioneered by the United Kingdom’s financial regulator in 2016 and since adopted in dozens of countries – allowing firms to test new products under relaxed rules and regulator supervision. New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority has been piloting a fintech sandbox of its own.

Seymour said the schemes would be permitted as, “not a favour a minister grants when someone complains loudly enough, but a published, permanent pathway that any company, anywhere in the world, can apply to”.

“A front door for innovation, not a back door.”

‘Slow regulatory machinery’

The Minister for Regulation said driverless cars, heavy agricultural drones, clinical trials and cell-cultivated food were among the technologies that could be tested under the scheme, arguing New Zealand had slipped behind countries such as the US, Japan and the UK.

“Right now they look at New Zealand and see the same slow regulatory machinery they’re trying to escape,” he said.

Innovation and technology were critical to lifting wages and productivity, Seymour said.

“Getting closer to the technology frontier is essential for a prosperous future in New Zealand. We could offer them something no other country could: a clear framework, a guaranteed timeline, and a government that will get out of the way and let them prove what their technology can do.

“We need to stop hoping they choose New Zealand, and go and get them.”

Launching agricultural drones

Seymour singled out the Civil Aviation Authority’s handling of agricultural drones, which cannot be flown on farms if they weigh more than 25kg without certification he said cost up to $2000 and took more than a year.

The Ministry for Regulation had identified the drones as an ideal candidate for a trial, he said, proposing the weight limit be suspended on defined farmland while data was collected, but the CAA had added it to a two-year work programme.

“In two years, there will almost certainly be new technology which puts Kiwi farmers even further behind the 8-ball,” he said.

Seymour also recounted conversations with rideshare company Uber about bringing driverless cars to New Zealand, saying the company told him “they wouldn’t be trialling their technology, they would be trialling the New Zealand Government”.

Beyond agriculture, Seymour said Innovation Trials could speed up clinical trials, improve access to new medical treatments and help attract investment in industries including artificial intelligence, digital finance, precision agriculture and cultivated food.

“These are industries worth billions. They’re all looking for somewhere to land.”