Nash StuartHon STUART NASH (Minister for Small Business): Thank you very much Madam Speaker. Dr Jian is obviously against small business or he hasn't read the Budget or he doesn't understand what's in the Budget. Either way now like his new leader he should do his homework before he comes down here and opens up his mouth. His speech was about how we didn't spend enough money—how we didn't spend enough money—and yet the Nats keep going on about how much money we're spending. I'll tell you the real insight. The real insight is that Dr Jian mentioned John Key's name more than he mentioned his current leader's. Well Dr Jian John Key and Bill English are no longer here my son. They are long gone the good old days. Do you know who your current leader is?Hon Member: Nasty.Hon STUART NASH: Nasty? I'm just pointing out a fact—I'm just pointing out a fact Jacqui Dean. The one thing I would say talking of Jacqui Dean is under the Jacinda Ardern Government for the first time in a long time the Minister for Small Business is actually a Minister inside Cabinet. This is the Government of small business—this is the Government of small business.Let me outline what was in the Budget for small business.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Please.Hon STUART NASH: The previous speaker said there was nothing in the Budget for small business. Well if this is nothing then heaven help me. First of all there was $3 million for something called Business Connect. Now this is rolling out Business Connect. What Business Connect does is it is actually addressing the major pain points that businesses have constantly told us they have when dealing with government—both central and local. When they apply for a licence or a permit or anything they've got to provide all their information numerous times. They have no idea where they are in the process so they go to check when their licence is about to expire: Has my licence been approved? Where am I at?" They have no idea. Business Connect is changing all this. In fact there have been a couple of trials on this with businesses and what they found is in the first year they got about a 35 percent increase in productivity; in the second year up to an 80 percent increase in productivity. Business Connect is responding to the direct pain points of small business. This isn't something we dreamt up; this is something small business said we need and we're delivering.There's something called e-invoicing—implementing e-invoicing. We've got another $12.5 million for e-invoicing. Now e-invoicing is one of these 21st century constructs that is going to make it significantly easier for small businesses to pay their bills. One of the things that I have actually done a lot as Minister for Small Business is move the conversation around payment terms. I remember when the previous Opposition spokesperson for small business who happens to be sitting opposite me came out and said "Our policy is going to be that every business pays on the 20th of the month following." I thought that absolutely lacks aspiration—and probably a little bit of a lack of knowledge around 21st century technology. The 20th of the month following is a historic construct to do with cheques and mail etc. etc. At the beginning of COVID we went out and in a letter signed by myself the Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance wrote to every single Government agency and said we want you to pay 10 days after receipt of invoice—not 20th of the month following; that could be up to 50 days. We wanted 10 days. In fact we were looking at legislation before COVID. A discussion document was out there. E-invoicing gives life to this. What e-invoicing is is my accounting software talking to Kieran's accounting software for example. It's generated invoices. It means they're correct and it means people get paid on time. We all know as we're told time and time again that small business is about cash flow. Imagine getting your invoices paid in 10 days as opposed to 50 days. In fact at this point the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment (MBIE) actually pays 75 percent of their invoices within five working days and 95 percent of their invoices within 10 working days. In fact one of the first things I did as Minister for Small Business was I called in a company called Fonterra whose payment terms were 120 days from the end of month of invoice—so it could be 150 days—and said to them "How can you justify treating your customers like this." What did they do? They came back and they changed it to the 20th of the month following. Payment terms and cash flow are so important to small businesses. The thing about this is MBIE tell me that about 30 percent of invoices are late paid. That's not because of lazy accounts payable; that's because the invoices are wrong. So a small business puts their invoice in. On the 20th of the month following they get a call saying your invoice is late; they've got to resubmit it. That is woefully inefficient. E-invoicing will change this.E-invoicing was also part of our single economic market agenda. So we're working very closely with the Australians. We have the same platform—Peppol platform. So New Zealand and Australia are going to be one when it comes to e-invoicing.There was also something about digitisation of small business. This is encouraging innovative initiatives to encourage small business to use e-commerce. Now one thing we do know is that under alert level 3 those businesses that were already e-commerce enabled or already digitally enabled or using digital tools probably had a competitive advantage over those businesses that weren't. We understand in the 21st century we just need to ensure that our small businesses have the ability to use digital tools in a way that drives productivity that optimises their offering and that allows those men and women who work incredibly hard to look at the data that is generated from their business anyway and see how they can improve it.One thing I've said to my MBIE officials is I see us—I see our role—as enablers. We're not going to go out there and be so arrogant as to tell people what they can do but what we can do is develop the tools look at the ways we can make them really accessible and provide a level of training to get small businesses into e-commerce so they can again be part of the 21st century.The other thing is we put $2.3 million into business.govt.nz. Now I have no doubt that a number of MPs get an email from business.govt.nz. The reason I say that is because they have 850000 email addresses of almost every single small business sole trader or large business director to which they send out email newsletters. Now they've done it around single issues—for example we did it around the Small Business Cashflow (Loan) Scheme: just a single email saying this is going to expire on 12 June; if you're interested in this we recommend that this is where you go and this is how you can enrol—to full-on full COVID newsletters which list everything that we're doing. It leverages over 200 different websites. There are some amazing tools on business.govt.nz and in fact I would recommend anyone who is listening to this that's a small-business owner or any of the MPs just to take a look at business.govt.nz. It is a fantastic resource for informing businesses of what is available to them to help them plan to help them succession plan—cash-flow planners Holiday Act; you name it it is there. It is a great resource.We also put money into the New Zealand Business Number (NZBN) organisational part number. Now I have said as the Minister for Small Business whenever I'm speaking at any sort of chamber event or business conference that I believe that this will be the last generation of business owner that will survive let alone thrive without being digitally enabled. The reason I say that is everything we are developing at MBIE and also at Inland Revenue is based on a digital platform. That is the New Zealand Business Number. It is very easy to get and in fact to be part of the Small Business Cashflow (Loan) Scheme a business had to enter their NZBN. So this is the platform upon which businesses connect and e-invoicing etc. sits. It is amazing what we have achieved and Minister Woods has had a lot to play in this in terms of innovation and digitisation. But it is amazing what we have achieved in just 2½ years in terms of trying to drive the sort of digital innovation that we think will make a huge difference to the small-business sector. We also put just under $10 million in Better for Business. Better for Business is an all-of-Government group that works really closely together on the issues that small business tell them are barriers to their success. They undertake surveys; they make a whole lot of recommendations. It is a very very engaged group of chief executives and it is I think one of the most valuable groups in this Parliament—not of MPs of course; of officials—because it is the top CEs actually nutting out how to drive innovation and success in the small business sector. When the last member said that there is nothing in this Budget for small business I hope in the last 10 minutes I have just very briefly outlined just a number of the few initiatives that we have in the Budget that directly relate to small business. There are of course a number of other initiatives like research and development employment training wage subsidy etc. etc. that actually do help small business but this is a Budget about jobs and about small business. Thank you very much."