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RT HON JENNY SHIPLEY
Address to
LAUNCH CALYX SOFTWARE IN NEW ZEALAND
"BRIGHT FUTURE IS NEW ZEALAND'S FOR THE TAKING"
Siemens, 300 Great South Rd, Greenlane, Auckland
1.00pm, Monday 22 November 1999

It is truly wonderful to be here to launch this stunning new product onto the world market.

Calyx is a world beating product made right here in New Zealand by Roger and Pat Ansin, and their small team.

I will leave the technical people to describe to you the intimate details of the software bit I wish to talk about the outstanding performance of Callista.

Callista is a real example of an entrepreneurial company – one that was started literally in a garage – coming up with a niche idea, and then attracting the interests of a company like Siemens.

It now employs six staff here in New Zealand and has an office in the United Kingdom, and is looking to expand some more I am told.

Now, as the Calyx system prepares to go global – I'm told that Siemens has already launched the software in Australia and will soon take it to Europe and South Africa –another uniquely New Zealand success story is born.

It is the sort of success story that is repeated all over New Zealand if you look for it.

It is yet another example of a small innovative kiwi company taking on the world with a niche product and winning.

I recently visited another such company in the Wairarapa.

It is making components for soft drink vending machine that keeps a record of the stock and when the machine needs refilling.

This company had sold the technology to Coca-Cola and opened an office in Atlanta to help with the servicing of machines in the United States.

The Managing Director told me that one of the Mars family, makers of the famous chocolate bar, had just recently visited to look at the system.

These are the success stories that some want to celebrate and others want to talk down.

As we enter the final week of this election – the choice is becoming very clear as to which party constantly berates the state of our productive sector, and which party is promoting it and boosting it.

Labour have a watered down policy for business development that promises a tiny bit of money here and there – the failed old policy of the government picking winners, and the taxpayer picking up the tab when they go bust.

Labour’s industry assistance promise is basically a con.

It is designed to look substantial, but the $100 million Labour are promising will amount to very little because they have promised it to every group that wants a bit of help:

 Industry has been promised some to set up a new Government agency (Industry NZ), to give grants for various purposes;

 Local government has been promised some to help local economic development;

 Rural areas have been offered some to help rural development;

 Tourism has been offered some;

 Maori have been offered some.

But the biggest con of all is that in return for these crumbs, industry will be sent a bill of over $1 billion by a Labour/Alliance government and is being told it is being well looked after by a bribe of $100 million.

Lets take a look at the bill that business can expect from a Labour/Alliance Government.

Labour and the Alliance will put taxes up the equivalent of $800 million, with employers having to pay some of that.

ACC changes will see another $200 million added to the bills of companies around New Zealand.

The repeal of the Employment Contracts Act will cost New Zealand business another $200 million.

The paid parental leave provisions to be introduced by the Alliance will see a further $100 million slapped onto the costs of running business.

Another four weeks' annual leave, again an Alliance policy, will see business stumping up with $400 million, and if all that is not enough business will need to factor in another $60 million as the Alliance minimum wage increase to $20 a week comes into force.

I do not want anyone, not employer or employee, coming to me and saying that they were not told.

The details I have given you are just for the Labour and the Alliance. If the Greens join such a coalition, the picture gets a lot worse, for business and for employees.

The range of ecology taxes that the Greens could visit on New Zealand really is a worry for hardworking employers and employees in this country.

These people just have no concept of who it is that actually creates the jobs in this economy.

They seem to want to drive you out of business by weighing you down with increases in all your charges, and then buy you off with a measly $100 million dollars.

I don't think that New Zealand workers and their bosses are quite that stupid.

National is proud of the millions of dollars we have out back into business with the ACC reforms, the energy reforms, the tax cuts.

We are committed to more of the same – more of your money in your pocket to invest in your business and for you to hire more staff.

That is what will see more businesses like Callista develop in New Zealand for our youngest and our brightest to work for when they leave school, polytech or university.
Instead of burdening business down by taking more off you, we will be offering direct saving to industry of $200 million in ACC, and $360 million in corporate taxes, with more to come.

National has got right to the heart of where our future growth will come from – in sectors like those represented by Callista New Zealand and the Calyx product.

The knowledge based economy – for want of a better description – will play a key role in the future of New Zealand and is the reason National launched our Bright Future package.

The thrust of that package is to recognise the future, today, and prepare for it.

We are the only party to have any sort of comprehensive policy at all on this very vital issue of preparing New Zealand for our export earners of the future.

Under Bright Future we are spending $223 million over the next four years on the real problems facing New Zealand industry - getting the tertiary education, research and business sectors working better together to get ready for our future – where our heads will become as important as out hands.

That is the future and only one party is prepared for it with polices for the next millennium – National.

I want to congratulate everyone involved in the Calyx MIS system – it is another signpost towards a positive future for New Zealand which is ours for the taking if we go forward – not backwards.

(ENDS)

© Scoop Media

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