There's a belief New Zealand First's proposal to slash the tax rate for small businesses could make a positive difference to our business landscape.  

The party's promising to lower the tax rate from 28% to 20% for firms with turnover under $30 million.

Its estimated cost is about a billion dollars a year.

BusinessNZ Chief Executive Katherine Rich told Kerre Woodham it would apply to a majority of our businesses. 

She says it would need to be researched for implementation, but it's bold and could transform business in New Zealand   

LISTEN ABOVE 

There's a belief New Zealand First's proposal to slash the tax rate for small businesses could make a positive difference to our business landscape. &nbsp;
The party's promising to lower the tax rate from 28% to 20% for firms with turnover under $30 million.
Its estimated cost is about a billion dollars a year.
BusinessNZ Chief Executive Katherine Rich told Kerre Woodham it would apply to a majority of our businesses.&nbsp;
She says it would need to be researched for implementation, but it's bold and could transform business in New Zealand &nbsp;&nbsp;
LISTEN ABOVE&nbsp;

Join Kerre Woodham one of New Zealand’s best loved personalities as she dishes up a bold, sharp and energetic show Monday to Friday 9am-12md on Newstalk ZB. News, opinion, analysis, lifestyle and entertainment – we’ve got your morning listening covered.

Kerre Woodham Mornings Podcast

Katherine Rich: BusinessNZ CEO on the impact NZ First's proposed tax cut for small and medium businesses could have

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/5b480e1e-1c81-4e54-a4f6-b4d00023cd2d/transcript

The political parties have pressed go on their election campaigns and every morning from now until November 7th, we'll have a full smorgasbord of party promises to pick over. Lucky, lucky us.  

Of course, most of them aren't worth the paper they're printed on. The minor parties have the luxury of promising you a pony and a castle and fairy bread for the rest of your life, then when it comes time to stump up after the election, they'll be all, "Oh, soz, we really wanted to, but those mean Nats/Labourites wouldn't let us. Sorry." So everything you hear, take with a grain of salt.  

And everything the two main parties promise, ask yourself how they expect us to pay for it, because they won't be paying for it out of their party war chests. We will be. You and me. So when the policies come out from National and Labour, think like a supermodel – one of the OG supermodels, Linda Evangelista, famously said, "I don't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day." And that was back in the 80's, that would be serious coin now. Ask yourself when you hear the policies promised by National and Labour, "is this worth me getting out of bed for to do a full day's work and pay my taxes?" 

Back to the breakfast buffet of election promises. New Zealand First says it will cut the tax rate for small businesses by almost a third, from 28 to 20% The reduced rate would apply to companies with a turnover under $30 million, which sounds like small businesses are pretty big businesses. They say, New Zealand First, it will cost a billion dollars, but that will be more than returned with increased productivity, long term investment, and increase in labour demand, employment, and wages.  

But what would you do if your tax was cut by 8%? Where would you put that extra money? Because it comes back to the reason why you started your own business, became your own boss. Is it to be the next Bill Gates? There are a number of you that I've talked to over the years who could grow your businesses, but you don't want the hassle. You could take on more staff, but you don't want to. Once your business gets to a certain turnover, you want to kick back and enjoy life, coach the kids' sport, take time off during the holidays. It's the batch, the boat, the BMW mentality. You have enough for the life you want to live. You don't want to invest in new capital or more staff or do more hours or pack your bags and head overseas and hustle for the next contract. Why? You've achieved a level of comfort that you're happy with. You don't want to be a billionaire.  

What does success look like to you? If you became your own boss, if you set up your own business, what was that for? To give you freedom? To give you independence? To make a fortune? If New Zealand First got this one over the line in a coalition agreement with National or Labour, what would you do with that extra 8%? Do like New Zealand First believes you will, reinvest it back in the business? Or would you use it to just live your best life, get there faster? And I'd love to know the motivation behind setting up your own business. For the people who've phoned me over the years, it's been about lifestyle, about making your own choices, making your own decisions. It's not been about chasing the buck, but I'd love to hear from you. 

The political parties have pressed go on their election campaigns and every morning from now until November 7th, we'll have a full smorgasbord of party promises to pick over. Lucky, lucky us. &nbsp;
Of course, most of them aren't worth the paper they're printed on. The minor parties have the luxury of promising you a pony and a castle and fairy bread for the rest of your life, then when it comes time to stump up after the election, they'll be all, "Oh, soz, we really wanted to, but those mean Nats/Labourites wouldn't let us. Sorry." So everything you hear, take with a grain of salt. &nbsp;
And everything the two main parties promise, ask yourself how they expect us to pay for it, because they won't be paying for it out of their party war chests. We will be. You and me. So when the policies come out from National and Labour, think like a supermodel – one of the OG supermodels, Linda Evangelista, famously said, "I don't get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day." And that was back in the 80's, that would be serious coin now. Ask yourself when you hear the policies promised by National and Labour, "is this worth me getting out of bed for to do a full day's work and pay my taxes?"&nbsp;
Back to the breakfast buffet of election promises. New Zealand First says it will cut the tax rate for small businesses by almost a third, from 28 to 20% The reduced rate would apply to companies with a turnover under $30 million, which sounds like small businesses are pretty big businesses. They say, New Zealand First, it will cost a billion dollars, but that will be more than returned with increased productivity, long term investment, and increase in labour demand, employment, and wages. &nbsp;
But what would you do if your tax was cut by 8%? Where would you put that extra money? Because it comes back to the reason why you started your own business, became your own boss. Is it to be the next Bill Gates? There are a number of you that I've talked to over the years who could grow your businesses, but you don't want the hassle. You could take on more staff, but you don't want to. Once your business gets to a certain turnover, you want to kick back and enjoy life, coach the kids' sport, take time off during the holidays. It's the batch, the boat, the BMW mentality. You have enough for the life you want to live. You don't want to invest in new capital or more staff or do more hours or pack your bags and head overseas and hustle for the next contract. Why? You've achieved a level of comfort that you're happy with. You don't want to be a billionaire. &nbsp;
What does success look like to you? If you became your own boss, if you set up your own business, what was that for? To give you freedom? To give you independence? To make a fortune? If New Zealand First got this one over the line in a coalition agreement with National or Labour, what would you do with that extra 8%? Do like New Zealand First believes you will, reinvest it back in the business? Or would you use it to just live your best life, get there faster? And I'd love to know the motivation behind setting up your own business. For the people who've phoned me over the years, it's been about lifestyle, about making your own choices, making your own decisions. It's not been about chasing the buck, but I'd love to hear from you.&nbsp;

Kerre Woodham: Are these election promises worth it to you?

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/3b0fcd35-6f20-4034-a9bd-b4d00005efcc/transcript

Time is running out for the businesses that generate billions of dollars worth of GDP and that employ a quarter of a million New Zealanders.

They're the businesses that run on gas. Your bakers, your coffee roasters, your wineries, your wood processors, your ag sec. And that's not counting the schools and hospitals dependent on gas to heat their buildings.

Time is running out because the gas they operate on is running out. It's a finite resource. And as yet, they haven't found anything to replace it.

And yes, we've probably heard about the high profile businesses like Glenbrook Steel Mill and Spates Brewery in Dunedin who've transitioned to electric arc furnaces and electric boilers respectively. But for a huge number of businesses, a shift is not yet technically or financially possible but the gas is going to run out.

They can't say, we'll just keep it going until we transfer over because when it's gone, it's gone. And when it comes to making the transition, it's not just the cost of a new electric furnace.

If bakers, for example, want to make the move from gas to electric, that will cost upwards of $10 million. And that's just the beginning. There are the connection costs. That starts at a couple of million, just to get the thing connected. And then there's the backup plan. Electricity isn't as reliable as gas.

BusinessDesk quotes the country president of Schneider Electric who had a customer that had to dump 19 million litres of milk because they lost energy for 30 seconds.

As a result, businesses that are transitioning are spending capital on battery stabilisation just to make the grid usable before they can completely transition over. And it makes for a really uncertain environment and that's reinforced by a Schneider Electric survey.

They looked at 288 senior business leaders and found 39 percent of them had delayed expansion or lost contracts due to energy costs or supply issues in the past year. We've talked about it before.

 I think we've talked about it and about the fact that it's coming, that the end of the gas is coming, and yet people and businesses, don't seem to be able to afford to make the transition or else they've looked at the numbers and thought - we'll have to go overseas because there we'll have a reliable energy source. It won't be as expensive as it is here.

It's a shame. But we've still got the business and we can set up offshore.

Energy costs have doubled over the past five years. But even though we've complained about the cost of everything going up, the cost of a loaf of bread hasn't doubled.

Where are you at if you are one of those businesses? They're big and they're small in terms of those that rely on gas. With the smaller ones, is it even worth transitioning?

Do you just shut up shop and start again? With the bigger ones, I mean, you probably can't afford not to. Now, the eventual exit, as BusinessDesk writes, of Methanex, New Zealand's single largest user, would free up some volumes currently used for methanol production, but that's only a temporary reprieve.

What are we doing here? I can't even imagine what the future looks like. That is, one day you'll go to turn on the gas and it won't be there. What will you have done before that?

Will you be long gone, reading about it from Australia? Will you be in another business entirely? Where do we go from here?

LISTEN ABOVE

Time is running out for the businesses that generate billions of dollars worth of GDP and that employ a quarter of a million New Zealanders.
They're the businesses that run on gas. Your bakers, your coffee roasters, your wineries, your wood processors, your ag sec. And that's not counting the schools and hospitals dependent on gas to heat their buildings.
Time is running out because the gas they operate on is running out. It's a finite resource. And as yet, they haven't found anything to replace it.
And yes, we've probably heard about the high profile businesses like Glenbrook Steel Mill and Spates Brewery in Dunedin who've transitioned to electric arc furnaces and electric boilers respectively. But for a huge number of businesses, a shift is not yet technically or financially possible but the gas is going to run out.
They can't say, we'll just keep it going until we transfer over because when it's gone, it's gone. And when it comes to making the transition, it's not just the cost of a new electric furnace.
If bakers, for example, want to make the move from gas to electric, that will cost upwards of $10 million. And that's just the beginning. There are the connection costs. That starts at a couple of million, just to get the thing connected. And then there's the backup plan. Electricity isn't as reliable as gas.
BusinessDesk quotes the country president of Schneider Electric who had a customer that had to dump 19 million litres of milk because they lost energy for 30 seconds.
As a result, businesses that are transitioning are spending capital on battery stabilisation just to make the grid usable before they can completely transition over. And it makes for a really uncertain environment and that's reinforced by a Schneider Electric survey.
They looked at 288 senior business leaders and found 39 percent of them had delayed expansion or lost contracts due to energy costs or supply issues in the past year. We've talked about it before.
&nbsp;I think we've talked about it and about the fact that it's coming, that the end of the gas is coming, and yet people and businesses, don't seem to be able to afford to make the transition or else they've looked at the numbers and thought - we'll have to go overseas because there we'll have a reliable energy source. It won't be as expensive as it is here.
It's a shame. But we've still got the business and we can set up offshore.
Energy costs have doubled over the past five years. But even though we've complained about the cost of everything going up, the cost of a loaf of bread hasn't doubled.
Where are you at if you are one of those businesses? They're big and they're small in terms of those that rely on gas. With the smaller ones, is it even worth transitioning?
Do you just shut up shop and start again? With the bigger ones, I mean, you probably can't afford not to. Now, the eventual exit, as BusinessDesk writes, of Methanex, New Zealand's single largest user, would free up some volumes currently used for methanol production, but that's only a temporary reprieve.
What are we doing here? I can't even imagine what the future looks like. That is, one day you'll go to turn on the gas and it won't be there. What will you have done before that?
Will you be long gone, reading about it from Australia? Will you be in another business entirely? Where do we go from here?
LISTEN ABOVE

Kerre Woodham: Time is running out for businesses that run on gas

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/9c35a0a3-0232-4597-8129-b4cf00558eb0/transcript

There's uncertainty from those whose businesses rely on gas as the Government hits pause on an LNG import terminal procurement process. 

The Energy Minister wanted to secure a deal with one of two possible candidates before the year's end, but time has run out before the election. 

New Zealand Association of Bakers President John Cockburn says it's not the news he wanted. 

He told Kerre Woodham many bakeries are built around a large oven, which would take years to replace if a new energy source was needed.  

Cockburn says continuing to play ping-pong with this issue means people in his industry don't know where to put their money. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

There's uncertainty from those whose businesses rely on gas as the Government hits pause on an LNG import terminal procurement process.&nbsp;
The Energy Minister wanted to secure a deal with one of two possible candidates before the year's end, but time has run out before the election.&nbsp;
New Zealand Association of Bakers President John Cockburn says it's not the news he wanted.&nbsp;
He told Kerre Woodham many bakeries are built around a large oven, which would take years to replace if a new energy source was needed. &nbsp;
Cockburn says continuing to play ping-pong with this issue means people in his industry don't know where to put their money.&nbsp;
LISTEN ABOVE&nbsp;

John Cockburn: New Zealand Association of Bakers President on the delay to the Government's LNG import terminal deal

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/7784f840-c291-422a-924b-ad9000bbad71/clips/140cf232-defb-4020-9dbc-b4cf00135ccd/transcript

Katherine Rich: BusinessNZ CEO on the impact NZ First's proposed tax cut for small and medium businesses could have

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