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Speaker 1: We are a country of small business. In fact, ninety

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Speaker 1: seven percent of our economies made up of small businesses.

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Speaker 1: So we got some new insight for you this morning

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Speaker 1: on the issues that small businesses face. Came out of

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Speaker 1: a big multi sector pain point discussion back in July.

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Speaker 1: Business New Zealand did the work. They've got a thing

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Speaker 1: called Reducing Compliance Burden Report and the CEO, Catherine Riches

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Speaker 1: with us on this Catherine Morning to.

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Speaker 2: You, Good morning.

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Speaker 1: It was an association with the Business Innovation Employment People,

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Speaker 1: in other words, of the government. Do the government want

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Speaker 1: to help because God knows how many interviews I've done

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Speaker 1: over the years on small businesses who've known about red tape.

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Speaker 2: Yes, I think they do, and that's why this work

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Speaker 2: has created a really practical shopping list of changes that

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Speaker 2: can be made that can start helping small business almost immediately.

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Speaker 2: The report was excellent. People's businesses were very clear about

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Speaker 2: what their pain points were. They listed out a lot

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Speaker 2: of the issues, some were new, some were not so new.

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Speaker 2: But with a Minister of Regulation, the Minister of Commerce

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Speaker 2: and Nicole McKee coming out, they're really clear they want

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Speaker 2: to make some changes. Good.

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Speaker 1: How ideologically driven is all of this In other words,

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Speaker 1: this government might want to help, but the next one

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Speaker 1: might not.

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Speaker 2: Look a lot of the ideas on the list are

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Speaker 2: very practical, because a lot of the debate about small

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Speaker 2: business ends up making vague, vague statements about we want

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Speaker 2: to cut red tape, but you've got to get into

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Speaker 2: the specifics about what you're actually going to do. So

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Speaker 2: this is a list of things that could make big changes,

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Speaker 2: not us to small business generally, but to entire sectors.

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Speaker 2: For example, our hairdressers and barbers have been much ignored

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Speaker 2: throughout the last fifty years or so. Many of their

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Speaker 2: regulations date back to the Keith Holyoake's time. Now that's

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Speaker 2: a one point four billion dollar sector and we get

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Speaker 2: modern regulations for them. That could speed out an entire sector.

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Speaker 2: But it's a lot of other things, from employment agreements,

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Speaker 2: food control plans. An early child wildhood center has to

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Speaker 2: get a consultant and more or less to spend thousands

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Speaker 2: of dollars to help them serve sandwiches and cut apple.

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Speaker 1: The scale of do we all come from the same place?

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Speaker 1: When you gather all the people in the room, do

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Speaker 1: we all go yep? Actually, you're right, it's too convoluted

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Speaker 1: so we're starting with the right intent.

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Speaker 2: We start with the right intent, but often policymakers make

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Speaker 2: things overly complicated because they're thinking about the big guys,

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Speaker 2: not how it's going to be implemented by a small business.

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Speaker 2: I mean things like the anti money laundering rules. They

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Speaker 2: had good intensions, but it's ended up being a convoluted

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Speaker 2: process where you're having to prove who you are and

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Speaker 2: where you live almost every three months.

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Speaker 1: That's absurd. The interesting thing I don't know if you

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Speaker 1: caught up with, was a story floating around yesterday about immigration,

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Speaker 1: which ties in with small business. You know, still trying

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Speaker 1: to get somebody into the country, still trying to get

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Speaker 1: a visa, it's too long. How much variability within the

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Speaker 1: government is there for any given small business. In other words,

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Speaker 1: you can ring a department who is quite good, another

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Speaker 1: department are completely useless.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, there is a lot of variability, and small business

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Speaker 2: just wants clarity. They just want to be able to

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Speaker 2: look things up and get a clear idea of what

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Speaker 2: they are supposed to do. And that's why one of

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Speaker 2: the suggestions was that all government departments should look at

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Speaker 2: things through the lens of the small business in terms

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Speaker 2: of the way they explain things. Immigration is a good example,

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Speaker 2: but equally employment issues, holidays at issues, fringe benefit tax

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Speaker 2: is a very good example. No, hardly anyone has some

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Speaker 2: more small business understands that.

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Speaker 1: All right, nice to talk to you, Catherine, and I

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Speaker 1: wish you nothing but the very best in getting this

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Speaker 1: sort of out. Katherine Rich's the business in New Zealand

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Speaker 1: CEO eleven weeks. I'll come back to this later. At

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Speaker 1: the visas on immigration, eleven weeks for employer accreditation, twelve

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Speaker 1: weeks for a job check, four months for a work visa.

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Speaker 1: I'm not proud of that in any way. Now, who

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Speaker 1: said that, I'm not proud of that in any way?

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Speaker 1: Who said that the person in charge?

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Speaker 2: For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast.

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Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talks at B from six am weekdays,

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