Mitchell Mark: Financial Reporting Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Mitchell Mark: Financial Reporting Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 28 November 2012. Volume:686;Page:6919. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
MARK MITCHELL (National—Rodney) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to take a call on the Financial Reporting Bill. It was a pleasure to be in the House—I am sure my colleagues will agree—to hear Raymond Huo’s maiden speech. I will be rushing back to my office later to watch that again. It was so compelling. 
I thought it was a bit unfair of my colleagues to refer to Mr Cosgrove and Mr Clark as the “Two Ronnies”. I have to say that I think “Arkwright and Granville” would be far more accurate. They are both working hard to keep the Labour shop open. I am not sure who “Gladys Emmanuel” would be but they are both working very hard to keep their shop open. 
This bill is a very important bill for small businesses. It has been great to listen in the House tonight to the Greens New Zealand First and Labour all commending the Minister of Commerce Minister Foss for bringing such a good bill to the House. I am sure that Mana will also join them in congratulating Minister Foss on such a good bill. 
I would like to talk about the fact that this bill is just part of a much bigger programme that the National Government is implementing to make sure that compliance costs and savings are put in place for our small businesses. It was a very good point that was made before that small and medium sized businesses make up to 97 percent of enterprises in New Zealand. Family businesses and owner-operator enterprises make up to 60 percent of enterprises. 
I would just like to talk about our party—actually the wider party—and our electorate organisation and the type of work that they are doing behind the scenes to assist as well. I would like to talk about a very good remit that was brought to one of our regional conferences recently. It is a member’s bill that I have picked up which is now in the ballot and it is an amendment to the Disputes Tribunals Act. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: Hang on. Wrong bill. 
MARK MITCHELL 
: What it does is it raises the claim amount from $15000—[ 
Interruption 
] No no this is good Mr Cosgrove. Listen. It raises the dispute amount from $15000 to $30000. What this means is that small and medium sized businesses can now instead of forfeiting part of their claim take it to the disputes tribunal. That can save them a lot of money. It prevents them from having to take it to the District Court which is very costly and out of the reach of a lot of small businesses. I am using that as an example of another very good initiative that is being driven not necessarily by the parliamentary wing but by our members out in the electorates. 
What is being driven by Labour Party members? Let us see what sorts of remits they have just had at their conference. 
Scott Simpson 
: Unions. 
MARK MITCHELL 
: Yes absolutely right. They have just put up a remit that has allowed the Labour Party to be captured by the unions. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. Your predecessor indicated and we agree that this is quite a wide-ranging debate but I fail to see—this is the Financial Reporting Bill—what other parties’ remit books or policies or small claims courts or anything have to do with it. None of that is mentioned in this bill of some 150-odd pages. I would just ask you to bring the member back to the bill. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Although I can appreciate the member’s concern I could also quote him Speakers’ ruling 46/2. We give a little bit of leeway. But I would ask the member to try to talk to the bill. 
MARK MITCHELL 
: Certainly. Thank you Mr Speaker. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: That would help. Thank you. 
MARK MITCHELL 
: I would like to come back and just point out some other very good measures that this Government has put in place. Levies for businesses are reduced by 22 percent a saving of $247 million or $1120 a year for the average small business with say seven employees. That has a big impact and is something that is fairly significant to small businesses which are often working on tight margins. We have not bowed to political pressure and sunk businesses by putting the minimum wage up to $15 an hour. 
I ran a series of four business forums in my electorate of Rodney this year where I got together small and medium sized business owners. One of the things that they continually told me—and this was coming from small-business owners; this was not coming from politicians; this was not coming from anyone other than the people who are actually running these small businesses—was “Yes we would like to pay our people more and we will pay our people more when we can afford it. But we will tell you what will happen if you decide to put the minimum wage at $15 an hour: the people who are now on $15 an hour will want to go to $17 and the ones who are on $17 will want to go to $19.” It will have a flow-on effect it will put pressure on small businesses and they will have to start laying people off. That is what the Labour Party is about—wanting to lay people off their jobs. 
Good business growth goes with investment in infrastructure. We are investing heavily in the State highway network and delivering significant productivity gains over time. I would just like to draw to your attention the importance of the Puhoi to Wellsford motorway. This is going to open up Northland. It is going to create commerce. It is going to create jobs. The Opposition keeps referring to it as the “Holiday Highway”. I invite Phil Twyford—where is Phil Twyford—to come up to Rodney with me. I will put on some meetings with the locals and we will see what they have to tell him about whether or not it is the “Holiday Highway”. That is a slap in the face for everyone who lives in Rodney and North Auckland. 
I would just like to say that this is a very good bill. I look forward to receiving it at the Commerce Committee. I commend it to the House. Thank you.