National wants to keep Investment Boost, review the GST registration threshold and create an AI-powered export navigator covering things like tariffs as party releases small business plan

In the lead up to November’s election, National has released a 47-point plan focused on small business.

Some aspects of the 47-point plan are new but the party has also incorporated some of its previous announcements into it such as those on proportionate building liability and capital-market reforms.

Making the announcement on Wednesday morning, National’s small business spokesperson Cameron Brewer says the party’s plan aims to reduce compliance costs and make it easier for people to invest, grow and employ staff.

Part of National's plan includes:

• Keep Investment Boost
• Review the compulsory GST registration threshold which has been at $60,000 since 2009. The party says it will look at options to reduce compliance and remove barriers to small business growth
• Develop a fast-track process for “suitable minor employment disputes” through a “simplified” Employment Relations Authority pathway
• Require Employment Relations Authority determinations within one month of the investigation meeting or final submissions
• Review the Employment Relations Authority’s enforcement powers
• Introduce “proportionate regulation of paid employment advocates, covering conduct, competence, transparent fees and complaints”
• Rewrite “priority” health and safety codes and guidance in “plain English”
• Allow eligible chartered accountants to administer statutory declarations
• Replace “unnecessary” compulsory newspaper notices with searchable online publication and
  “appropriate” community notification
• Create an AI-powered export navigator covering tariffs, rules of origin and market-access requirements, linked to official information and specialist support
• Remove a further $1 billion in non-tariff barriers by 2030, “prioritising restrictions identified with New Zealand exporters”

National also wants to complete the rollout of modern business payments, including regulated open banking and the Reserve Bank’s payments modernisation programme.

Brewer says small businesses don’t have teams of people to deal with government paperwork - “often it is the owner doing everything themselves late at night after the kids are in bed".

“That is why this plan is focused on practical changes that give them time back, whether that is helping them through their first hire, resolving employment disputes faster, or letting them update core business information once instead of repeating it across government.”

“We want the sole trader to feel confident taking on an apprentice, the café owner to open a second premises, and the local manufacturer to win their first overseas order,” Brewer says.
 
“When small businesses can invest, employ and grow, the benefits flow to their communities, with more jobs and more opportunities to get ahead.”

The Labour party released its own small business policy in August. At the time, Labour said it wanted to scrap Investment Boost. It also proposed to raise the GST registration threshold and lift the asset write-off threshold. 

Read National’s small business manifesto here.