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- Make Anti Money Laundering (AML) compliance user
friendly for small business. - Introduce a Minister
and Ministry of Regulation to police red tape and regulation
making from within Government. - Immediately abolish
Fair Pay Agreements and supporting freedom to
contract. - Get rid of the complicated and burdensome
system for temporary work visas and replace it with simple
demand-based pricing, while tackling the sources of
Immigration NZ’s slow processing times. - Place a
moratorium on minimum wage increases for three
years. - Remove the January 2 public holiday to help
small business absorb the cost of
Matariki. - Reinstate 90-day trials for all
businesses, not just those with fewer than 20
employees. - Reduce the costs of unfounded personal
grievances to employers. - Introduce an hours-based
accrual system for annual leave, which will make it
significantly easier to calculate entitlements and removes
the need for complicated pay-as-you-go
provisions. - Make it easier to build new business
premises, supermarkets, logistics infrastructure and farm
improvements. - Welcome foreign investment by
exempting investors from countries within the OECD from the
need to receive Overseas Investment Office
approval. - Reform the Credit Contracts and Consumer
Finance Act, paring it back to first
principles. - Lower the cost of imported goods by
abolishing tariffs.
“Small businesses are the
backbone of New Zealand’s economy. If New Zealand is to
have a thriving and productive economy, we need to make it a
better place for small business to operate in. ACT is
committed to doing that,” says ACT Leader David
Seymour.
“Starting a business is brave and involves
taking huge risks. We understand the pressures that business
owners are under and want to create sensible, practical
policies which support them.
“Today we announce a
package of policies for Small Business, led by a commitment
to deal with prohibitively expensive, frustrating, and
ineffective AML compliance.
“Anti money laundering
(AML) regulations have been described as the world’s least
effective policy experiment, with compliance costs possibly
to the order of 100 times higher than the amount of
laundered money seized. The laws were created with casinos
and banks in minds but has since been widened to include
smaller businesses who don’t have dedicated compliance
teams and are put in a difficult position to comply within
strict deadlines and face major fines for delays. ACT would
implement a more risk-based approach, tailored to the size,
nature, and risk level of various
entities.
“Specifically, with regard to AML, ACT
would:
- Reduce compliance costs associated with
the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of
Terrorism Act - Provide clear guidelines on how to
comply with the legislation instead of a wait-to-prosecute
approach - Simplify customer due diligence processes
for low-risk customers or transactions, including relaxed
rules for low-risk trusts - Allow reporting entities
to certify the identity, source of wealth, and source of
funds for clients with whom they have an established
relationship - Allow scanned copies to be
accepted - Extend timeframes for small businesses to
submit reports to Police
“Cutting through AML
red tape is one example of ACT’s approach. Too many rules
are created by bureaucrats in Wellington who don’t have a
proper understanding of what impact they have. To them
it’s just words on a form, to the business owner having to
comply it is time and money spent on something that might
not be doing anyone any good. ACT’s Minister and Ministry
for Regulations would get rid of unnecessary regulations and
prevent more from being added.
“Since Labour came to
power it has added expense after added expense for small
business owners. Increases in minimum wage, so called
“fair pay” agreements, another public holiday, the end
of 90 day trials – how are businesses meant to grow when the
Government is inflicting more costs on them at every
opportunity?
“Labour thinks they’re helping
employees with these but they’ve made it harder for them
to be hired in the first place. We’ve all seen the emptied
shopfronts and ‘lease’ signs that have become so
prevalent over Labour’s term.
“Take 90-day trials
for example, they gave employers the opportunity to take a
chance on workers they wouldn’t otherwise. Young or
low-skilled workers, or people who have been out work, have
the most to gain from being employed on a trial basis. ACT
will bring them back for all businesses.
“’Fair
pay’ agreements amount to compulsory unionism that will
reduce productivity and make it harder for employers to grow
their businesses. ACT will get rid of them
immediately.
“It is the same with the minimum wage,
a policy that seems kind but is the opposite in reality. In
2022 MBIE advised the Government to go slower in raising the
minimum wage and estimated that thousands fewer jobs would
be created because of the rapid increase in the level of the
minimum wage.
“ACT will reverse these anti-business
policies. We’ll create an environment for investment by
making it easier to access credit and easier to build and
develop.
“ACT will welcome foreign direct investment
from friendly OECD nations, we’ll make it easier to access
credit under the CCCFA, and we’ll make sure investment
goes further by making it easier to develop new business
premises and logistics infrastructure. This is what is
required to support greater levels of productivity, jobs,
and higher incomes.
“ACT has employers’ backs. We
will fight on their behalf for more sensible, sustainable
economic policies so they can grow their businesses and
employ more New Zealanders.”
Policy document is
found here.
© Scoop Media
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