Chamber plans postal deluge for Government

By JIM EAGLES business editor

Several thousand business owners around the Auckland region are about to give Labour Minister Margaret Wilson the message on employment-related compliance costs.

The Auckland Chamber of Commerce is distributing 30,000 postcards addressed to Wilson and asking for relief from the growing burden of red tape.

The chamber's chief executive Michael Barnett said the Labour Minister had been chosen as the target because much of the concern about compliance costs was in the employment area - most notably in the Employment Relations Law Reform Bill - "and she seems to be the driving force".

The Government was clearly trying to give the impression that business organisations like the chamber were not representing the views of grassroots business when they criticised policies such as those in the bill, he said.

"Well the postcards will give our grassroots members the chance to communicate directly with the minister so she can see for herself what they do think."

Barnett said the small businesses that made up much of the chamber's membership were often too busy to become involved in lobbying, "but I would hope that at least a third or maybe half of the postcards will end up in the Beehive.

"When that happens I hope the minister will recognise that it is not the chamber which is out of touch with grassroots business opinion - it is the Government - and will review the policies accordingly."

The postcards are to be sent out to businesses early next week.

One says, "When we invested in our business ... we didn't realise we would need to reinvest in order to meet compliance costs which are now out of all proportion to the size of our business."

Another makes the point that, "We are being robbed of the priceless time needed to expand our business by an unnecessary compliance burden."

A third says, "Last year we spent up to 150 hours on business compliance - time we could have invested in our lives and with our family - but you stole that part of our lives."

Barnett said the chamber planned further postcards for specific policies, particularly from Wilson's employment law bill, of particular concern to small business.

Ironically, the postcards will be distributed as Wilson and Environment Minister Marion Hobbs lead off a series of ministerial visits to small businesses which, according to Small Business Minister John Tamihere, will "keep the Government's finger on the pulse of small businesses".

But Barnett said the events were little more than photo opportunities for Government MPs and would do nothing to improve their understanding of genuine business opinion.

"The Government should have no problem keeping in touch with grassroots business views because it has been receiving them loud and clear from the Chambers of Commerce and Business New Zealand," he said.

"They evidently didn't like what we were telling them so they set up their Small Business Advisory Group to try to bypass us ... but got exactly the same message.

"Now they are trying the tack of going to meet a couple of dozen pre-selected businesses in the hope of being told what they want to hear ... but that isn't going to work either.

"There's only one message coming from small business and it's the message they've been getting from us - the message they'll get from these postcards - which is to do something about the increasing amount of time and cost tied up in compliance.

"It's about time they started responding to the message instead of constantly looking for someone to tell them something different."