Baillie ChrisCHRIS BAILLIE (ACT): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise on behalf of ACT to speak to the second reading of the Business Payment Practices Bill. I wasn't in the select committee but I don't think it takes much to look through the bill and to see how silly it really is.The bill's intention is to improve transparency about business-to-business payment terms and practices such as the amount of time it takes for entities to pay their suppliers. The bill would require entities to report on their payment practices twice a year if they have revenue over $33 million. And this is where the silliness of the Government is visible to see: revenue over $33 million. Most small businesses employ up to 20 staff and this bill won't help them one little bit.I talk to small-business owners every day and ask them how they have felt they've been treated over the last five or six years and they are hurting; they think that they've been treated with utter contempt. And then you ask them What about this Business Payment Practices Bill?" and explain it to them and they just shake their head and laugh. I listened to Mr Bayly before and he had the temerity to mention that very few Labour people have owned businesses. And I heard the outcry—I heard the outcry—but the outcry was all in the past tense: "I used to own a business." "I owned a business."—"I owned a business."Hon Dr Deborah Russell: That's because we are MPs. Our job is here.CHRIS BAILLIE: Try and do it—well you might need to go back to the business in October because it is a lot harder—[Interruption]ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jenny Salesa): Order!CHRIS BAILLIE: —to do business now than in the old days. The fact that similar schemes introduced in Australia and the UK have shown no noticeable improvement in payment practices should raise concern and Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment officials have admitted that they don't know the scale of what the issue is. So there might be a chance that business owners actually don't really want to do this—hurt other businesses and their staff on purpose. The bill is designed to keep up the appearance that the Government cares about small business but it is actually doing nothing to help. Once again it is a solution looking for a problem.When introducing the bill to the House Stuart Nash stated "Small-business owners in New Zealand continue to report that delays receiving payments are hurting cash flow increasing stress levels and inhibiting their business growth." It was as if the biggest problem that small business is facing is payment from big business and it just showed a complete ignorance of what businesses are facing. Small businesses do have cash-flow problems they have ever increasing stress levels and they do have many things that are inhibiting their business growth. All of these things have been caused by this Labour Government—a Government that doesn't understand or care about business and what is required to make this country thrive and so workers can be rewarded for their efforts.I listened to Minister Andersen's disingenuous introduction alluding to really caring about business but we look at the absolute nonsensical wage rises: 44 percent increase in minimum wage and a 7 percent increase in productivity. Extra stat holidays: $450 million to businesses. Extra sick leave: almost $2 billion to business and where Andrew Little just said "Oh it won't hurt them very much; that's OK." The list can go on. All of these additional costs are being sucked up by businesses who have had to continue to try and make a profit to pay their staff. They've contributed to our high inflation and the struggle with the cost of living that New Zealanders are dealing with at the moment.This bill won't help small businesses a bit. What will help is some common sense and genuine support for those hard-working employers by voting ACT on 14 October and we don't support the bill."