Election 2020: Political party leaders, MPs pitch to Auckland business crowd

Green Party's Chloe Swarbrick, NZ First's Winston Peters and Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford. Photo / Brett Phibbs

The Greens say the most important thing for small businesses in the next 100 days are the three Cs - collaboration, communication and creativity - while Act only cares about "the big C" - certainty.

New Zealand First says Bill Clinton was right in 1992 when he said "it's the economy, stupid", National wants its tax cuts by December 1 but Labour says that would lead to austerity.

In a mostly civilised and well-mannered discussion, an MP from each party this afternoon made their pitch to a Business North Harbour crowd over a lunch of lamb chops or fish.

There were a few eye rolls - both from MPs and audience members - and a few jabs over tax being love, fiscal holes and just one reference to NZ First's recent 1 per cent polling.

"This could be the last time you get to see [NZ First leader Winston Peters] live," National's finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith said.

"Sort of like Elton John's farewell tour."

The Greens' small business spokesperson Chloe Swarbrick - who drove there in a car share - made her six-minute pitch first and said New Zealand was facing three crises: climate change, biodiversity and poverty.

But Covid-19 presented an opportunity to solve them altogether which would require large scale deployment and create jobs, said Swarbrick.

Peters went next and gave the audience a history lesson.

He said thanks to NZ First's contribution to the coalition, New Zealand had a Labour Government response worthy of the beloved 1930s Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage.

"Given the historic uncertainty that the pandemic produced, and with no playbook to guide us, we said that if the coalition erred, it should err on the side of being closer to the First Labour Government's humanitarian response to the Great Depression than the Fourth Labour Government's blitzkrieg approach," Peters said.

"The 1935 approach helped the country survive the depression and it set up long term access for housing, employment and necessary welfare. It set the course, also, for policy stability that lasted the next 50 years.

"The latter 1984 and 1990 ideologically-driven approach sent people over the cliff with no warning and no support. Thirty-five years on we are still seeing the wreckage."

Peters committed to continuing the Provincial Growth Fund, returning 90-day trials, no tax increases, reducing corporate taxes and offering a 20 per cent tax break on new exports.

Goldsmith's take on NZ First's offering could be summed up as: "Basically we [NZ First] selected a Labour-Greens government and we stopped it doing stupid stuff".

National would instead stimulate the economy through "short-term stimulatory" tax cuts and encourage the private sector to create jobs, Goldsmith said.

span>

"The Labour Party believes that the Government fundamentally creates jobs.

"What you do is you borrow money and use it on getting people to hunt possums and plant flax bushes and do various projects around the place.

"And again, that's useful but it's not the whole story. Where most of the sustainable jobs come from is the private sector investment."

Economic Development Minister Phil Twyford disagreed.

He said National's tax cuts would benefit the rich instead of the poor who would spend the extra money and stimulate the economy.

Instead, Labour would provide a strong and stable government which was what businesses needed, he said.

"Folks, we have a practical plan for the next two governments already under way," Twyford said.

"What we need now is stability and continuity, not a divided and distracted National Party that can't even make its own numbers add up. They've had three leaders this year and every day a new error emerges in Paul [Goldsmith's] fiscal plan."

Act leader David Seymour said he'd heard the voices of businesses owners who'd said things weren't looking good. The key to their recovery was good policy, he said.

Some people would tell New Zealanders not to worry about the amount of debt the Government was taking on because interest rates were so low "you'd be a fool not to borrow", Seymour said.

"But if you study human history, getting into debt never ends well."

Seymour said the key policies for businesses would be to "get Taiwan-smart" with the public health response to Covid-19, pay off debt quickly and seize the opportunity of "being an island nation on a pandemic planet".

Whatever colour of party, however, they all came together and agreed on one thing while sat together on Auckland's North Shore: there needs to be another harbour crossing.

National would start construction by 2028, Labour might do the same "or it might be later", NZ First said New Zealand needed to start acting "like a first world country", the Greens wanted a multi-modal option, while Act said "we need to get cracking".