From the House: Budget backs small businesses

Stuart Nash is Napier MP

Last week the Government announced our Wellbeing Budget 2021 which is focused on securing New Zealand's recovery from Covid-19.

The Budget lays the foundations for coming out of Covid stronger by addressing long term challenges like housing, inequality and climate change, while making sure we can continue to grow the economy.

To ensure we can weather the uncertain times ahead and protect jobs, we need to continue to manage the economy responsibly and keep a lid on debt.

That's why we're carefully targeting new spending to drive economic growth while addressing long-standing challenges like inequality.

Our policies will see up to 33,000 children lifted out of poverty, and Treasury forecasts 200,000 more people will be in jobs over the next four years as our economy recovers.

An important tool for supporting continued economic growth is the backing of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

As the Minister for Economic and Regional Development and the Minister for Small Business, I am pleased to confirm that over the next two years, this Labour Government will invest $44 million in continuing the Digital Boost Training Programme, which is a suite of business training courses for SMEs.

We will also be providing new digital business advisory services to help Digital Boost graduates adopt digital ways of working.

The training, advice and support services will be delivered by private sector specialists and are modelled on the Digital Boost programme (https://digitalboost.co.nz/). These additional services will enable small businesses to take advantage of opportunities in e-commerce as they recover from the global economic impact of Covid-19.

Greater use of digital technology will be a hallmark of commerce in the future, yet many SMEs struggle to embrace new tools because they are so busy focusing on their core business.

The Digital Boost Training Programme will assist 30,000 SMEs, and the new advisory service will support 15,000 SMEs to change their businesses per year. It will grow the digital skills and capabilities of the workforce, improve productivity and create more resilient businesses.

Greater adoption of digital skills and processes will help businesses and their staff to keep working safely through potential future disruptions or Civil Defence emergencies. Digital commerce also contributes to higher wages, higher productivity and a lower carbon economy and builds New Zealand's brand as a safe and secure place to live, invest, trade, visit and do business.

In the past year, direct Covid-19 recovery support to the SME sector has been extensive. It has included the wage subsidy, interest-free loans, free business advice through the Regional Business Partners network, grants and loans for tourism businesses, resurgence support payments for alert level changes, the flexi-wage, the leave support scheme, apprenticeship boosts, and a wide range of tax changes affecting depreciation, low value assets, and provisional tax thresholds.

It is important that the Government continues to support our SMEs as they are a crucial part of our economy and have been some of those most affected by Covid-19. I look forward to seeing the Digital Boost Training Programme and advisory services put to good use to support and grow New Zealand businesses.

- Stuart Nash is Napier MP