Business community screams out for ACT policies
Business community screams out for ACT
policies
Business New Zealand’s seven election priorities, announced today, confirms that Kiwi businesses are desperate for the Government to adopt ACT’s policies.
The priority list, which was informed by a survey of businesses, practically reads like a shopping list of ACT positions:
Priority 1: Keep taxes under
control
ACT opposes election bribes, instead
preferring to use forecast surpluses to reduce taxes. We
will cut personal tax rates at every bracket, and ensure
no-one pays more than a 25% personal tax rate. ACT would
also cut company tax from 28% to 25% immediately, with a
long-term plan to bring it even lower.
Priority 2:
Fix skills gaps
ACT would maintain access to
skilled migrant workers that other parties plan to restrict.
In the long term Partnership Schools (an ACT initiative)
will address the specific needs of students unengaged with
the mainstream school system, ensuring no-one is
‘unemployable’.
Priority 3: Support
trade
ACT is Parliament’s strongest supporter
of free trade. At every opportunity, ACT will work to
strengthen existing relationships while leading the world in
trading connections to Asia. We also support a free trade
and movement area between Canada, Australia, New Zealand,
and the UK (CANZUK).
Priority 4: Help businesses
innovate
ACT will replace corporate welfare with
tax cuts for all businesses, big and small, fashionable or
not, ensuring they all have extra funds to invest in R&D or
diversification. We’ll also cut regulation to ensure
technological progress isn’t held up by
bureaucracy.
Priority 5: Build
infrastructure
ACT would share half of the GST
on building projects with the local council, for use on
infrastructure. This would ensure infrastructure is built in
areas of greatest need, and also have the effect of
incentivising councils to approve new development (like
housing).
Priority 6: Improve planning and local
government
ACT will scrap the Resource
Management Act – it’s the single largest source of red
tape causing our housing shortage. ACT would replace it with
separate legislation for natural and urban environments. The
new legislation would acknowledge property rights and the
value of economic development.
Priority 7: Grow
the regions
ACT will keep the government off
farms and oppose the political scapegoating of irrigation
and dairying. We’ll improve access to migrant labour and
export markets, and defend the rights of regions to tap into
valuable resources below ground and sea.
There’s only one way to turn these priorities into reality, and that’s by electing more ACT MPs, with 1.2 % gaining a second MP, 2 % for a third, and so on, who will force the Government to restore its business credentials.
ENDS