Peck Mark: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members Question No. 7 to Minister  
Peck Mark: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers Questions to Members Question No. 7 to Minister  
[Volume:620;Page:15372] 
6.  
MARK PECK (Labour—Invercargill) 
 to the  
Minister for Small Business 
: What reports has he received on reductions in compliance costs for small businesses? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE (Minister for Small Business) 
: 
 Among the many reports I have received last week I received the KPMG - Business New Zealand compliance cost report that noted that compliance costs have reduced on average by 17 percent per business. That result is in keeping with the Otago University business school study that required business people to record the amount of time they spent on compliance rather than to just estimate it as was done with the KPMG survey. This Government has created a great environment for businesses to prosper and they are prospering. 
Mark Peck 
: Has the Minister seen reports of any methods other than those promoted by the Government being adopted by business to streamline compliance? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: According to the Petone small businessman Chris Milne as reported in the Christchurch  
Press  
yesterday many small businesses simply ignore the regulations. As someone who was on a taxpayer-funded salary out of the ACT party’s parliamentary office for the last 6 years Mr Milne has first-hand knowledge of running a party that is a very small business. 
Lindsay Tisch 
: Does the Minister agree with a submitter’s statement in the Business New Zealand - KPMG survey: “Stop writing laws that stop good law-abiding citizens from getting on with their lives. Deal with the ratbags and leave us alone.”; if not why not? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: I agree with several things in the KPMG cost compliance survey and if Kiwi people would be nice ethical and have great standards we would have very few regulations. 
Sue Kedgley 
: Has the Minister sought or received any reports about the compliance costs on small business of the proposed trans-Tasman joint therapeutics agency an agency that the Health Committee has been informed will significantly increase compliance costs on small businesses in the dietary supplements area causing many of them to go to the wall; if not why not? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: No I have not received any of those reports. 
Gordon Copeland 
: Has the Minister seen the recent Ministry of Economic Development report that reveals that only 27.4 percent of small and medium enterprises last more than 7 years and that during this Government’s reign there has been a marked decline in the number of company births and a marked increase in the number of company deaths; if so how does he intend to address the greatest threat of all to small business which is its survival? 
Hon JOHN TAMIHERE 
: Contrary to what the member may take out in terms of slices of information I see a lot more reports that show that year in year out small businesses in this country have produced 50000 full-time jobs and that they are a stellar success in the engine room of the economy. If they were as bad as that and died as often as that they would not be producing as many jobs as they do.