Dean JacquiHon JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): Good morning Mr Speaker.SPEAKER: Good morning again.Hon JACQUI DEAN: Again.SPEAKER: It's great to have you here.Hon JACQUI DEAN: It is wonderful to be here.Brett Hudson: It's the same day. It's a long morning.Hon JACQUI DEAN: Yes well I've got all day. It is a pleasure to speak to the New Zealand Business Number Funding (Validation and Authorisation) Bill through all stages of the House. National is supporting this bill.The New Zealand Business Number is a good initiative for New Zealand business. I'll just give a bit of background to the establishment of the New Zealand Business Number and I want to congratulate the Minister the Hon Stuart Nash for picking up this piece of work and developing it even further because it will be of huge benefit to all New Zealand businesses particularly when the uptake is as good as it should be.Since 2013 companies registered in New Zealand have had a New Zealand Business Number and that is a unique identifier for businesses. They can use those in their interactions with Government agencies and departments; but not only that businesses can use this number in interactions with other businesses and that is what makes it so valuable. The National Government in our time used it as part of the Business Growth Agenda and that was used to focus on and build a productive and competitive economy.In Budget 2015 the intention to introduce legislation to allow the New Zealand Business Number to be allocated to all New Zealand businesses operating in New Zealand was brought about and that included sole traders partnerships and also incorporated societies. The legislation that these were contained in was passed in 2016. So the New Zealand Business Number established a register and enabled the allocation of New Zealand Business Numbers to businesses and to individuals operating as businesses such as sole traders partnerships and the trustees of trusts. More than 500000 enterprises have been allocated a New Zealand Business Number and the benefits are many. The benefits of a New Zealand Business Number reduce costs to business and it's about making doing business faster. It makes doing business easier and simpler.I was talking to a small-business owner just a couple of evenings ago who was complaining loud and long about the time it takes to do paperwork—GST; wages of course; compliance; all those activities that businesses must do on a regular basis. Across many Governments over the years measures have been taken to improve the processes and the support around small businesses. I think the Minister referenced that working on your business is far more important than working through the administrative detail which while important is up to a Government—any Government and every Government—to make as smooth and as accessible as possible. So making business faster making it easier and making it simpler particularly moving on to the online platform is part of the reason that when National were in Government we were ranked number one in the world for ease of doing business.The New Zealand Business Number simplifies how business works with Government. It greatly reduces the costs and time and hassle of doing business and dealing with Government agencies because businesses under the New Zealand Business Number no longer have to keep updating their data with a number of different Government databases. The New Zealand Business Number will enable all sorts of innovative and time-saving administration solutions between businesses between their suppliers and between Government giving them more time to spend on growing their business. There is a matrix a diagram you could cast with the New Zealand Business Number and businesses who operate with their suppliers their customers other businesses Government agencies regulatory authorities local Government. It is a complex matrix and the New Zealand Business Number traverses them all. All businesses in New Zealand are eligible for a unique New Zealand Business Number and to be registered on a New Zealand Business Number register.So in essence the New Zealand Business Number does away with the need for businesses every time they wish to sit down and work with a different Government agency to update and file their details time after time after time. The New Zealand Business Number cuts through all that. It is calculated that the New Zealand Business Number could save business up to $60 million a year; so the sooner more and most businesses sign up the sooner those benefits will be seen across the sector which is experiencing some strong headwinds at the moment with some of the measures that the current Government has brought in—measures such as increasing the minimum wage so very quickly and some of the labour-relations requirements going in.Some businesses now no longer have the ability for 90-day trials meaning that it's harder for larger businesses with over 20 employees to take on—it's becoming much more risky—employees. The 90-day trial was in fact one of those and I won't traverse that for too long. We have over this side of the House spoken to many many small-business employers who have said It enabled me to take on a youngster and give them a chance and guess what? Most of the time it's worked out just fine." So while we regret—and this is a side bar Mr Speaker; I will return to the bill with great haste—that small business is certainly under the pump at the moment the New Zealand Business Number is probably the one measure that this Government have adopted to benefit small business. So it's by no means evening up the scales.The Labour - New Zealand First - Green Government are not a business-friendly Government. That is demonstrably true. Businesses—SPEAKER: Maybe we'll get back to the bill now. I know the member's trying to excite the House but I think we'll get back to the bill.Hon JACQUI DEAN: Thank you.Hon Scott Simpson: And it's working.Hon JACQUI DEAN: Well I've got the Speaker's attention and that's wonderful. Another measure where the New Zealand Business Number is good for business is the e-invoicing which is another programme which has been picked up by this current Government. The New Zealand Business Number has been expanded to include more of the information businesses need at their fingertips. Companies can now update their primary business data—that's "PBD"—to include their GST number through the company's register.E-invoicing which was also an initiative under the previous National Government was first considered in 2016. I think the first work began on e-invoicing then and is now progressing under this Government. I do wish they wouldn't try and take all the credit for it but here I am today to remind the Government that this very good piece of technology for small business was commenced under National grateful though we are that this Government—SPEAKER: Right back to the numbers.Hon JACQUI DEAN: —for once have seen the sense and have carried it on. So with invoicing businesses—SPEAKER: Order! [Speaker holds up copy of the bill]Hon JACQUI DEAN: Yeah OK—all right. Well can I just try and weave it in—SPEAKER: Oh have a go—have a go.Hon JACQUI DEAN: —because I think I can.SPEAKER: Go on. I'll be generous.Hon JACQUI DEAN: I think I can because with e-invoicing where businesses no longer need paper-based invoices that falls in to support the ability to use their New Zealand Business Number capability in invoicing their clients by using the same data as the unique identifier. So that is why I raised e-invoicing as part of one of the few things that this Government is doing to support small business."