Hon Lianne Dalziel
Minister of Commerce, Minister for Small Business,
Minister of Women’s Affairs, MP for Christchurch East

15 August 2007 Speech Notes

Launch of business.govt.nz website

Speech at Media launch of business.govt.nz website
Harriet Harcourt Catering,
476 Adelaide Rd, Beramphore, Wellington
9.30am

Good morning and welcome to Harriet Harcourt Catering, a pretty typical New Zealand small business. Thank you, Harriet, for providing us with a place where we could launch our new and improved business website. The reason we asked Harriet if we could hold the launch here is because Harriet told us she had used the previous site. So she knows what went before and she will be able to give us genuine feedback on what we believe to be new and improved, up to the minute technology.

Harriet has run food businesses in various guises for 20 years and has recently established this new catering venture here in Wellington. She markets a range of her own food products and is also involved in food styling and cooking education.

There is no doubt that she is passionate about her work. And there is also no doubt that, like other small business owners, she is a very busy person.

Harriet’s company profile is pretty typical of the people behind New Zealand’s small and medium sized enterprises – those companies with fewer than 20 employees, which, as we all know, make up around 96 per cent of all New Zealand firms.

These SME owners tend to be resourceful, innovative and creative people. So they are not short on commitment; what they are short on is time.
As the saying goes – these people would benefit from being able to spend more time on their business rather than in their business. Or perhaps they would like to spend more time achieving that all important work-life balance we all dream about.

I have spent my time in the last 21 months as Minister for Small Business travelling the length and breadth of this country listening to the needs of SMEs and one message that has come through loudly and clearly is that they need access to information they can rely on to run their businesses effectively and efficiently and to minimise any compliance requirements of the myriad of government agencies they have to deal with.

Although we have had the biz.org.nz website since 2003, it hasn’t benefited from the government branding that business look for when seeking the level of assurance they need. And that is why the launch today of the new and improved business.govt.nz website is so pleasing.

The site has been developed in consultation with a range of government departments and ministries, business groups and business service providers, which means it reflects what businesses are telling us they need. It has been designed with the actual users in mind and it can be relied on for accurate information.

The point of difference about this site is the way it harvests information from a range of relevant websites (both government and private sector) and presents it all on business.govt.nz. No longer do busy business men and women have to trawl through lots of web pages to find what they’re looking for.

It is designed to save busy people the most important of all commodities: time.

Users can tailor the site’s services to meet their particular information requirements. This means businesses can be alerted to any relevant changes to their obligations, for example, as well as news that is of interest to them.
Checklists on the site provide businesses with step-by-step guides on topics such as growing their business and it also provides easy access to a range of online training modules.

I think one of the key points to make about this new business site is that it is very much designed to meet the needs of people who are already in business – not just those who are starting out.

The government announced a significant investment in this one-stop-e-government-shop for business in last year’s Budget and today’s launch represents a major milestone in delivering a portal that delivers on the ambitious target the government set.

I am very excited about the potential of this site, because it will enable business owners to tap into the support that is available within both government and the private sector, and it will be continuously improved over time based on the feedback we receive.

So that’s enough from me. Thanks again Harriet for allowing us to launch the website here.

And I will now hand the floor over to Adi Christie, who has overseen the development of this site, to demonstrate some of its key features to you.

Thank you.

ENDS

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