Hon Steven Joyce
Minister for Small Business

5 August 2014

Labour forget the rest of their Small Business policy

The Labour Party appears to have misplaced the second page of their Small Business Policy when they released it this morning, Small Business Minister Steven Joyce says.

"The paper they released contained a number of business-as-usual items that the Government is already doing, like the IRD’s transformation project for simplifying taxation and compliance costs for small businesses, the flexi-wage wage subsidy, and changing the Government procurement rules to encourage small businesses,” Mr Joyce says.

“However, they seem to have missed out a number of key new initiatives they are proposing that would have a much bigger impact on small businesses than those announced.”

These include:
• dropping the 90-day trial for new employees
• dropping the starting-out wage to encourage businesses to take on young people
• immediate big increases in the minimum wage
• KiwiSaver contribution increases
• a comprehensive capital gains tax on all businesses
• a much more expensive ETS which would slow down economies in regional New Zealand
• tough new taxes on water use
• a national award pay system that would require small regional businesses to pay the same pay rates as large big-city businesses

“Unfortunately Labour's short list of what they say they would do for small businesses is far outweighed by their long list of what they would do to small businesses. It's just a pity they didn't release the full policy,” Mr Joyce says.

“The reality is that small businesses would only get smaller under Labour.”

ENDS

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