See the full Manifesto here: Link
There are more than 560,000 registered businesses in New Zealand employing more than 2.3 million Kiwis but there is a pervasive attitude and narrative that often paints business as unscrupulous, unfair and uncaring.
Instead of acknowledging the risks and celebrating the contributions of business, the focus in the past few years has been on the tiny percentage of businesses that may fit that negative narrative.
Taking the plunge into business ownership is a bold step, particularly in the current environment. There is more complexity than ever, failure rates are high, and the major successes uncommon.
But without the success of those many small to medium- sized businesses that make up 97% of New Zealand’s economy, our communities cannot thrive and grow.
The country cannot support its goals for education, health, housing and infrastructure and the lifestyle that New Zealanders treasure begins to fade.
A thriving, growing, more productive business sector mindful of its environmental, climate, diversity and community responsibilities, is critical to the success of our country and that role should be acknowledged by any new Government.
The business sector has repeatedly stated its desire to work and partner with Government, providing ideas, resources and even funding to help the country achieve its goals. Acknowledging that position of importance would be a huge step for a new Government.
Throughout our policy wish list, the EMA has suggested and asked for measures that will help create a more productive economy. Encouraging investment in our people and new technologies should be a given in trying to address New Zealand’s relatively low-scale achievements in improving productivity.
An incoherent immigration policy linked to increasing failure rates in our education system is a major concern for employers looking for work-ready talent to enhance their businesses. We have a great scheme to assist apprentices but an immigration scheme that makes it difficult to bring in the skilled people needed to train them.
An incoherent immigration policy linked to increasing failure rates in our education system is a major concern for employers looking for work-ready talent to enhance their businesses. We have a great scheme to assist apprentices but an immigration scheme that makes it difficult to bring in the skilled people needed to train them.
The quickest way to significant emissions reductions and decarbonisation of industry is through electrification, both of the national vehicle fleet (freight and private vehicles) and the energy required by industry.
Without international investment and without removing the barriers that hinder major infrastructure delivery – finance, funding, consenting and workforces – our infrastructure gap will continue to grow and the resilience of our current infrastructure will continue to falter.
While macro-economic numbers continue to show that New Zealand is doing okay, resilience amongst the multitude of smaller businesses that make up our economy is low. Many of the business people we work with at the EMA have been running hard for two or three years.
There is fatigue caused by Covid, weather events and a slew of employment and other legislation that has generally raised costs and increased complexity with no discernible benefit to business. And there is growing concern about the mental well-being of business owners and their people.
Positive signals about the value of business to the country from a new Government in October would be a welcome relief and perhaps a turning point for the business community.
