Minister promises to 'lift the tempo' for small operators

By PAULA OLIVER

The Government has never dealt properly with the small business sector and needs to change its approach, says outspoken new Minister for Small Business John Tamihere.

After previously filling the role of associate minister under Paul Swain, Tamihere took over the portfolio a little more than a week ago and is keen to make things happen.

"It's the engine room of the economy, and we've never properly honoured it or engaged with it," he said.

"Small businesses are so disparate, so hard at it, they find it hard to stand up for their rights. We've got to say 'to hell with that'. We're going to get stuck in."

Better known for his ministerial roles in Youth Affairs and Maori Affairs, Tamihere is no stranger to controversy.

He arrived late for his Herald interview after coming under fire in Parliament's debating chamber for supplying a character reference for a man embroiled in Maori broadcasting funding agency corruption allegations.

Tamihere was keen to discuss his new small business portfolio, saying he was passionate about it, understood it well, and relished the opportunity to make a difference.

"Eighty per cent of the stuff that comes across a politician's desk tells you that you should go home and slash your wrists.

"But this is the real cutting-edge stuff, where you can go home to your constituency and know ... that certain things you've done have actually lifted the tempo across the board."

Among his top five priorities for small business, Tamihere listed:

* Reducing the time spent on Inland Revenue compliance.

* Looking at the fairness of ACC levies and asking if businesses should be rewarded for a good record.

* Easing the number of relationships small businesses had with Government.

* General compliance issues.

* Ensuring that the sector had a voice.

Tamihere gained his knowledge of the sector from his own experience as a lawyer and from his father, who was a self-employed steel-worker in the construction industry.

He said his father was a small businessman but "not a successful one".

"I learned very quickly what not to do in small business. My father had a difficult relationship in a whole range of things, from quantity surveying to an accountant who absconded with the dollars. He went bankrupt twice. I sort of worked through that process with Dad."

Later, as a lawyer working with small business owners, Tamihere helped to stop mortgagee sales, sort out debt rearrangements, and hold off creditors.

"I learned what not to do. But in doing that you learn what to do. I was always stopping creditors moving against assets, or endeavouring to sort out debt, so I was looking at company or business restructuring capabilities."

Tamihere thinks that every New Zealander has a view on small business, as they do on health, justice, education and welfare.

He is right, if the mountain of applications from people wanting to be on the Government's Small Business Advisory Group is anything to go by.

Six hundred and forty applications for the eight positions have been whittled down to 40. The group will advise ministers and a new small business office within the Ministry of Economic Development.

Interviews will be finished in a month.

The applicants include academics and people more associated with big business, but Tamihere does not want them.

"They've got totally different requirements. All those people who put in applications, God bless them, they're good people. But they're not wanted because they're the wrong people. As usual."

The advisory group will be appointed by the end of next month.

Tamihere is concerned that small business has lacked a voice because business owners are simply too busy. As a result, big business has spoken for the sector.

Compliance costs and tax changes are also coming under the spotlight. A discussion document on how to ease some of the burden small business owners face when they become employers will be released in August.

Tamihere referred to one of the changes being looked at as "tax smoothing". It involves reducing the number of tax payments small businesses have to make by combining provisional tax and GST payments.

It would help smooth businesses' cash-flow cycles, and has been welcomed by many - but criticised for being short on detail. Tamihere wants to push it.

"We've got to show we're supporting the budget-planning cycle of a small businesses," he said. "They're gonna have to face the music eventually with payment, but let's hope we can sing off the same songsheet for a change."

He will also look at other tax initiatives and work will be released by the end of next month on the progress made on the ministerial panel on business compliance costs' recommendations.

Tamihere is keen to advance a software project that would see businesses using one tailored package for their IRD requirements, PAYE, and other Government-related correspondence.

He said he knew that small business was annoyed by compliance and regulatory costs, not least because those requirements ate into business owners' family time.

"That exacerbates their view of Government. They've worked their guts out, long hours, and it has an impact on their family time and relationships."

He is also aware that there has been criticism of a plan, revealed in the Budget, to hold a small business summit in February. Many in the sector said they could not attend, but Tamihere said they could have an input in a later series of regional summits.

Tamihere wants his performance to be judged by targets that will be set by the Small Business Advisory Group, and other indicators, such as surveys.

"We've got to set some key performance indicators so that everyone knows whether the Minister for Small Business is bullshitting or not."