Next 10 things for Business Growth Agenda

The National Party has today laid out the 10 highest priorities for its Business Growth Agenda over the next three years as it works to lift New Zealand's long-term growth rate and create more opportunities for New Zealanders and their families.

"The Business Growth Agenda is doing a good job of giving companies the confidence to invest and grow jobs here in New Zealand,” National Party Economic Development Spokesman Steven Joyce says.

"The Deloitte Business New Zealand survey last week showed that 62.5 per cent of New Zealand businesses endorse the Government’s co-ordinated plan of action focused on raising New Zealand's economic performance.

"The challenge now is to keep working hard across all 350-odd initiatives in the Business Growth Agenda to remove capacity constraints in the New Zealand economy, and lift our growth rate while carefully managing the environmental impacts."

In particular, a re-elected National government intends to focus on the following ‘next 10 things’ to lift our long-term growth rate:

1. Negotiate and sign Free Trade Agreements including Korea, Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the WTO Government Procurement Agreement so our exporters can compete on an equal footing in other economies and further lift our exports.

2. Introduce and pass the Resource Management Act reform package to provide more certainty, timeliness, and cost-effectiveness in resource allocation decisions.

3. Hold Kiwi expat Job Fairs in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne to recruit skilled Kiwis for jobs back in New Zealand and help remove skills constraints for key sectors of the New Zealand economy.

4. Deliver more skills relevant to industry by setting up three new ICT Graduate Schools across New Zealand and investing to lift the number of engineering graduates available to employers.

5. Double the level of business R&D to 1 per cent of GDP by 2018 so that more of our innovative high-tech businesses succeed on the world stage.

6. Lift the footprint of the Ultrafast Broadband rollout from 75 per cent to 80 per cent of New Zealand and extend the Rural Broadband Initiative so that all parts of New Zealand have world-leading 21st Century broadband coverage.

7. Complete the passage of the Employment Relations Bill to ensure flexible labour markets that create more jobs for Kiwis.

8. Deliver Inland Revenue’s Business Transformation Project and simplify the tax system for SMEs so that New Zealand businesses spend less time calculating their tax and more time working on their business.

9. Accelerate petroleum and minerals exploration through our new data acquisition programme so that we increase exploration further from the $1 billion spent last summer.

10. Roll out the next stages of the Roads of National Significance and key regional roading projects so that we remove chokepoints and improve the resilience of New Zealand's core land transport system.

"These 10 projects are crucial to lifting New Zealand's growth rate and providing more opportunities for Kiwi businesses to invest and grow jobs. If re-elected, we will seek early support from other parties in Parliament to advance our Business Growth Agenda further,” Mr Joyce says.

"National understands that it is only by having a strong economy that we can lift opportunities and incomes for Kiwi families, and provide world-leading public services.

“Our Business Growth Agenda, along with our broader economic management, will turn what has been one or two years of a world-leading growth performance into a sustained long-term lift in New Zealand's prosperity."

ends

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell: On The New Government’s Policies Of Yesteryear

Winston Peters is routinely described as the kingmaker who decides whether the centre right or the centre-left has a turn at running this country. He also plays a less heralded, but equally important role as the scapegoat who can be blamed for killing taxes that his senior partners never much wanted in the first place. Neither Ardern nor Robertson for example, really wanted a capital gains tax, for fear of Labour copping the “tax and spend“ label they ended up being saddled with anyway. Usefully though, they could tell the party faithful it was wicked old Winston who killed the CGT... More

Government: National, ACT, & NZ First To Deliver For All Kiwis

The new coalition government of National, ACT, & NZ First will be stable, effective, and will deliver for all Kiwis. "Despite the challenging economic environment, New Zealanders can look forward to a better future because of the changes the new Government will make ... We believe in this country. We are ambitious for it. We know that, with the right leadership, the right policies and the right direction, together New Zealanders can make this an even better country," says incoming PM Christopher Luxon... More

ALSO:

• ACT - Real Change Begins Today
• Green Party - A Strong Opposition To Divisive Government
• Te Pati Maori - Luxon’s Government Will Whitewash Aotearoa
• NZ College Of Midwives - College Supports Solution Focussed Approach For New Health Minister
• Federation of Primary Health - Yes Minister – The Federation Is Looking Forward To Working With You