Election 2020 - Party Policies - Economy - Business
25th Jul 20, 5:55am
by
Business
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- Make the provisional tax voluntary.
- Provide for a more equitable treatment between the interest Government charges on overdue tax payments and the interest it owes for overpayments by businesses.
- Put NZTE under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs so that it can continue its role of providing GovernmentGovernment and Government-Business introductions.
- Privatize the business mentoring, funding approvals and export support role of NZTE and Callaghan Innovations, through competitive tender, leaving MBIE to govern the funding and performance through a Strategic Partnership Board.
- Freeze the minimum wage at the current level for three years and would expand employers’ ability to hire employees on a trial period.
- Review and simplify the personal grievance process, and ensure information is freely available to SME owners on how to deal with the process and comply under law.
- Read more here and here.
- Redesign the business support programmes provided through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, mandating sustainability as a key goal and auditing existing assistance and training programmes for effectiveness and relevance.
- Provide support to, and encourage consumer demand for, businesses which adopt sustainable certification programmes.
- Investigate changes to the tax system so preferential tax treatment is given to green technologies, low emission vehicles and other sustainable practices
- Require mandatory country-of-origin labelling for all imported products.
- Develop a Code of Corporate Responsibility for all corporations (foreign and domestic) operating in Aotearoa New Zealand.
- Ensure appropriate funding/training subsidies for staff training focused on low-income workers and small businesses.
- Read more here and here.
- Implement a major support package to assist businesses in hiring at least 40,000 New Zealanders whose employment is impacted by COVID-19.
- Progressively extend Living Wage guarantees to contractors to the public sector – such as our cleaners, caterers, and security guards.
- Increase minimum sick leave entitlements from five days to ten days a year.
- Increase the minimum wage to $20 an hour in 2021.
- Make it easier for women to gain pay equity in their organisation or across their industry, by ensuring there are better records of pay equity across New Zealand, including by ethnicity and age as well as gender.
- Make it easier for workers to receive fair wages and conditions, and avoid the 'race to the bottom' that occurs within competitive industries by implementing Fair Pay Agreements.
- Strengthen and simplify the Holidays Act, and allow sick leave to be taken when needed.
- Protect vulnerable workers by legislating protections for dependent contractors and by recognising security guards as vulnerable workers to ensure their terms and conditions are protected.
- Raise the age for workers to be allowed to perform hazardous work, ensure all workers have the right to elect health and safety representatives, and ensure Seafarer Welfare Centres provide better services.
- Read more here.
- The $10k JobStart will provide a $10,000 cash payment to businesses for all additional new employees.
- Temporarily lift the threshold to expense new capital investment for firms to $150,000 for two years.
- Cash payment to small businesses most affected by COVID-19.
- BusinessStart recipients will be able to write off new investment of up to $150,000 per new asset instantly under National’s previously announced policy.
- Provide a one-off $1000 voucher to buy advice and support from a Chartered Accountant or Registered Financial Adviser to develop a business plan that shows the business is a viable proposal.
- Allow the business owner to access up to $20,000 from their KiwiSaver account, to invest in the new business.
- Read more here, here, here and here.
- Continue to support the nation-wide roll-out of ultra-fast broadband and support initiatives for electronic learning and upskilling of vocational skills
- Redefine small to medium enterprise from 19 employees to 50 full-time equivalent staff
- Negotiate for the full reinstatement of the 90 day trial programme or at least expand its reach to more small businesses.
- Provide further support for business linked internships helping bridge the gap between industry and training
- Investigate the feasibility of a digital CV scheme to help employers and job-seekers during the hiring process
- Continue to streamline the tax exemptions so that they are simplified
- Convene a cluster to establish once and for all what the ‘red tape’ challenges are that hold all small businesses back and then work to remove them
- Assist with the cost of staff training and apprenticeships in the workplace
- Read more here.
- Free grants of $10,000 to help you improve your energy and resource efficiency (including farmers).
- Free grants of $10,000 to improve your use of digital technology. This may include equipment, creating an online presence or an e-commerce platform.
- Bulk discounts to help SME’s use cloud computing applications like Xero and cloud storage; and an online ecosystem of support tools.
- Free local networking to encourage energy and resource efficiency between companies.
- Upscale Dev Academy to get people competently coding within 15 weeks and secure jobs in our growing tech industry.
- Adopting appropriate building codes used by overseas countries to allow us to build more energy efficient homes faster and cheaper than we can do now.
- Help more NZ owned businesses access opportunities in the public sector; and incentivise companies to award procurement opportunities to NZ businesses.
- Read more here.
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