Flavell Te Ururoa: Regulatory Reform Bill — First Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Regulatory Reform Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:670;Page:16753] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Kia ora tatou katoa e hoa ma kei roto i te Whare i tenei ahiahi. The Maori Party entered into an arrangement with the governing party as members are aware basically to be at the decision-making table in order to do all we can to make a difference in the lives of tangata whenua of Aotearoa. As provided in the Treaty tangata whenua should have an equitable say in the decisions that affect them. A key principle for us is the need to have in place robust and accountable work practices by local government and regional authorities when working with mana whenua. We want to ensure that local governments acknowledge the mana and authority of mana whenua engage with Maori communities build relationships and advance Maori representation. In terms of the Regulatory Reform Bill in the broadest sense we support the approach of redoing existing regulations to remove requirements that may be unnecessary ineffective or excessively costly for business. 
The Regulatory Reform Bill in its most basic form is about amending 13 Acts as other members of the House have spoken about this afternoon basically to make small gains in order to improve the quality of the regulatory environment. As a principle we welcome the context of reducing an overly heavy compliance burden upon businesses though we want to ensure that the disaster of leaky homes is not repeated because of reduced regulations. 
I say all of this from the particular perspective of Maori entrepreneurs. It is well known that if the Maori nation was assessed as a country Aotearoa would rank as the seventh most entrepreneurial nation in the world. In fact when looking at the group of Maori between 35 and 44 years of age it could be said that one-third of an entire generation of Maori start their own business. For those in the senior stakes apparently Maori aged between 55 and 64 are some of the most entrepreneurial elders across the globe. The rate of early age entrepreneurship amongst this group is about double the average. But somehow between start-up and survival something goes wrong. We call it the liability of newness to describe the low chance of survival that so many Maori entrepreneurs experience. Businesses are said to have survived the liability of newness when they persist in owning and managing an established business for more than 3½ years. Although one in four Maori expects to launch a start-up venture in the next 3 years only 6.5 percent of Maori entrepreneurs are in the category of owning and managing a company that has paid wages or salaries for more than 3½ years. 
We come back to the Regulatory Reform Bill whilst thinking about the major issue for Maori businesses which is the sink or swim survival strategy that comes with starting up a new business. The bill seeks to amend a range of small regulatory fixes which will make life easier. It clarifies the Unit Trusts Act for example so that financial statements and accounts can be distributed electronically it amends the Agricultural Compounds and Veterinary Medicines Act to remove the requirement for the details of product manufacturers to be included on the public register and it will impact on the Companies Act 1993 to allow companies to choose whether to use electronic shareholder participation. A whole lot of other amendments are in a similar vein but I will not touch on them too much because some of them have been spoken about already. All of these things are hardly breaking news but we hope the changes are not merely cosmetic but actually help to increase productivity for Maori businesses and allow them to focus on their business rather than on fussing over compliance costs. We will be supporting the bill at the first reading. Kia ora tatou.