A step in the right direction
In a previous column, I wrote that in recalibrating pace and priorities, the Government should be looking at policy that will provide sustainable, inclusive growth and high-quality jobs that lead to higher incomes and make New Zealanders better off.
I also said that the Government needs to listen to business more closely – to help define that policy and deliver those outcomes, because it can’t do it alone.
This week’s speech by the Prime Minister is a strong signal that the Government is listening.
It is important for business to know that it has a voice, and that the Government is hearing it and responding.
The Prime Minister’s newly announced Business Advisory Council can provide a forum for that. It will provide high-level free and frank advice on key economic issues. Business should embrace this channel to assist in the development of policy. It will complement the work of the tripartite forum and the Small Business Council and, together with the range of other working groups that BusinessNZ is engaged on, represents wide coverage from a business perspective. But the Government must be open to receiving advice it does not agree with. A big business echo chamber for the Government will not help business confidence, and will risk creating a culture of ‘‘us and them’’ between large and small business.
Most of our businesses aren’t big. Of some 530,000, only 2500 or so have more than 100 employees. These companies matter, but so too do the other 500,000-plus that have fewer than 50 employees.
Whether large or small, businesses are part of the same ecosystem. Small businesses (those that employ fewer than 20 employees) are customers of and suppliers to many large businesses, and employ roughly 29 per cent of the workforce.
The diversity of council representation will provide an early indication of how successful its work programme will be. SMEs and regional businesses, the grassroots of New Zealand business, must be represented and the work programme closely aligned with that of the Small Business Council.
There were other important signals in the Prime Minister’s speech that demonstrate the Government is listening.
The issue of industrial relations is one area that is prone to being politicised when in reality, business organisations are merely expressing very real concerns being conveyed from all over New Zealand.
Business has been urging the Government to take heed of its request for clarity around policy and reform in the area of employment relations.
And in her speech, the PM acknowledged a ‘‘vacuum’’ in certainty over fair pay agreements, providing reassurance that there will be no more than one or two of these this term.
Something that has become very apparent to BusinessNZ in talking to businesses around the country is that their ideas about government policy are dominated by perceptions of preelection pronouncements.
Immigration is one of those areas. Labour’s policy leading into the election was actually quite moderate – but no one knew that.
It was therefore important to hear the Prime Minister clarify the Government’s immigration policy, and that it is committed to addressing skills shortages.
So has the Government done enough to restore business confidence? One speech alone won’t be enough to do so. But in offering clarity around its economic strategy and in making sure that business has a voice, the Government has taken a step in the right direction.