Bakshi Kanwaljit Singh: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBakshi Kanwaljit Singh: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 18 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1686. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]10.KANWALJIT SINGH BAKSHI (National) to the Minister for Small Business: What initiatives have the Government implemented through the Business Growth Agenda that assist small business?Hon CRAIG FOSS (Minister for Small Business): Small businesses benefit from an environment that gives them confidence to invest and grow. The Business Growth Agenda is working to create a competitive and productive economy that supports both the export-focused and domestically focused small businesses. The Business Growth Agenda has introduced a number of changes that have made it easier for small businesses to export to innovate to raise capital and to build skilled and safe workplaces. Some of the Business Growth Agenda initiatives helping small businesses are the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband the reduction in personal and company tax rates updating New Zealand’s intellectual property settings implementing the voluntary 90-day trial and reducing unnecessary financial reporting costs for small businesses amongst many other initiatives.Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi: What initiatives have been implemented to enable new ways for small businesses to access funding and capital?Hon CRAIG FOSS: Small businesses now have the opportunity to raise capital through changes brought in last year around crowdfunding and peer-to-peer lending. New Zealand leads the world in the ease of setting up a small business but these changes create even more opportunities for more start-up businesses as it gives them more options to raise funds and capital. This helps small businesses grow and employ more people. I do note I am very pleased that Labour has embraced National’s changes by using crowdfunding itself to try to raise funds for its operation.Jacinda Ardern: By how much has he reduced the compliance costs for small business in recent times?Hon CRAIG FOSS: In the primary answer I mentioned changing some of the financial reporting costs for small businesses so the vast majority of small businesses will not even have to produce full generally accepted accounting practice financial accounts as they had to in the past and as they had to under 9 long years of the Labour Government.Jacinda Ardern: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I am sure you will applaud me for my very straight question which simply asked by how much has he reduced compliance costs for small business.Mr SPEAKER: But I think to expect a dollar value on that—when you consider the complexity and variation of different businesses around New Zealand it would be impossible to expect the Minister to give that figure.Jacinda Ardern: Is the Speaker indeed right that the complexity is such that the Minister will not even be able to achieve his own public service target of reducing compliance costs by 25 percent when he has no idea of the impact of anything he has done to date or is it more to the point that he has not done anything to date?Hon CRAIG FOSS: What I do know is that the complexity of a capital gains tax on small businesses would absolutely take off the amount of compliance time resource and finances that small businesses would have to use and utilise to comply with such an initiative as outlined by the Labour Party—Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker.Mr SPEAKER: Order! I apologise to the Minister.Rt Hon Winston Peters: With respect the Minister was not asked about anything to do with a capital gains tax. He was asked a very direct question allowed by the Speaker’s prior comments and I would ask him to come back to the question he was asked.Mr SPEAKER: The difficulty I have is that the Minister could comment on the essence of the question which was around a Better Public Services aim of 25 percent and whether that target would be met. I think that is the essence of the question.Hon CRAIG FOSS: We are well on progress to achieving our Better Public Services aim of 25 percent. Help is on the way. The member should just wait and see. What is not happening is a capital gains tax for small businesses to try to work out what part of the couch they use to do all their daily accounts.