Hudson Brett: Oral Questions — Questions to MinistersText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHudson Brett: Oral Questions — Questions to Ministers[Sitting date: 19 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1769. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]8.BRETT HUDSON (National)to the Minister for Small Business: How will the New Zealand Business Number system make it easier for small business to interact with the Government?Hon CRAIG FOSS (Minister for Small Business):The New Zealand Business Number aims to make it easier quicker and less complicated for small businesses to interact with the Government. We have already allocated 1.1 million New Zealand Business Numbers to registered companies. Small businesses will have to provide the Government with information only once. The number will automatically be shared across Government agencies. The New Zealand Business Number is a core initiative of the Government’s Better Public Services for business (Result 9) programme which works in collaboration across a number of agencies making sure that joined-up Government services are not a one-off event but an ongoing commitment from agencies to improve interaction with the Government. A business reference group of 1200 small and medium sized enterprises has been tracking progress in this area. A survey over the last 6 months reports a net 7 percent reduction in reported effort since 2012 and a substantial improvement in reported performance by Government agencies.Brett Hudson: What other initiatives are there to make it easier for small business to interact with the Government and access the information that they need?Hon CRAIG FOSS: Business.govt.nz the Government’s website for small businesses brings together information from across government and explains it in a way that makes sense to small businesses. Business.govt.nz has recently released a new tool called Compliance Matters bringing together compliance requirements from across government into one easy-to-use tool. A business simply enters its industry stage and type and the tool will list all the requirements that are relevant for across government linking off to the relevant agencies for more information. This allows small businesses to access information quicker and enables them to spend more time on what they do best: business.Brett Hudson: Has he seen reports outlining initiatives that would lead to businesses having to spend more time interfacing with the Government?Mr SPEAKER: Provided the answer is within the ministerial responsibility the Hon Craig Foss.Hon CRAIG FOSS: I have seen reports on proposals to add new and complex requirements and taxes even on to small businesses. This would mean small businesses spend more time on administration and dealing with Government obligations and less time on growing their businesses and hiring Kiwis. If we want businesses to grow and employ more people the last thing they need is new complex complicated capital gains taxes and water taxes as proposed by the Opposition.Jacinda Ardern: Can he confirm that according to his own Cabinet paper “Larger businesses and industry representative organisations strongly support extending the New Zealand Business Number but smaller businesses were less enthusiastic.”?Hon CRAIG FOSS: The member should get up with the times and perhaps get out a bit more. The reference group and many companies dealing with many small businesses across the country have now in fact come on board and are endorsing the opportunities that the New Zealand Business Number provides.