27 Aug 2020

Judith Collins unveils National's plan to help small businesses

12:57 pm on 27 August 2020

National is pledging to repeal the government's changes to the Employment Relations Act and initiate a review of WorkSafe if elected.

Missed the announcement? Watch it here:

Earlier this week, National's leader Judith Collins told media the government should have extended the wage subsidy for the four extra days Auckland will be under level 3 restrictions.

Today Collins said National will back small business to create jobs and get the economy moving again.

She said the policies will also reduce red tape they face and improve access to capital for new and existing small businesses.

"The only sustainable way to create new jobs is to reduce barriers, costs and uncertainty for the private sector, and in particular small businesses," Collins said.

The party's small business spokesperson Andrew Bayly said businesses are "struggling under the weight of poor regulation and mounting costs".

He said a change to employment law and incentives for job creation will help people off unemployment benefits.

The review into WorkSafe will "ensure it is focused on delivering a high performance culture, with an emphasis on a collaborative and reasonable approach to health and safety improvement", Bayly said.

Proposed changes to the tax system would include lifting the threshold to expense new capital investment from $5000 to $150,000 per asset and increasing the provisional tax threshold to rise from $5000 to $25,000 as well as raising the compulsory GST threshold from $60,000 to $75,000.

"National has been very clear, we won't be increasing taxes or introducing any new taxes," Finance spokesperson Paul Goldsmith said.

National will also allow businesses to expense an asset once its depreciated value falls below $3000.

The party has reaffirmed its previous policies:

  • Encourage small businesses to invest in new equipment and machinery by allowing them to immediately deduct new capital investments up to $150,000
  • Encourage job creation for small businesses by providing a $10,000 cash grant for new hires with our JobStart policy and repeal Labour's changes to the Employment Relations Act
  • Provide New Zealanders who have lost their job up to $30,000 in capital to put towards a new business idea through our BusinessStart package

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