ACT Social Welfare Spokesman Dr Muriel Newman has today told Amberly business people that cutting compliance costs is an
urgent priority.
Dr Muriel Newman says “as a former chairman of Northlands Chamber of Commerce she shares the concerns at the huge cost
government bureaucracy is putting on the country’s small businesses .
“Every community is sustained by local enterprise; small businesses form the heart of any township they provide the jobs
and opportunities for local families. Yet all too often small business bares the brunt of the government’s obsession
with the need to regulate and control.
“In the past decade alone 3200 new laws and regulations have been passed by government. Small business is the engine
room of New Zealand employing four out of five kiwis, yet red tape and bureaucracy is adding a huge burden of costs.
“Research has shown unanimously that small businesses bare a disproportionate burden of compliance costs. Politicians
sitting in Wellington are passing laws, with no one checking that they are needed, that they are working and with no
regard for the costs they are putting on small business.
“Parliament blissfully passes laws without any regard for the damage they’re doing to jobs and to growth. Politicians
think that there is not any problem they can not fix by passing a couple of laws and spending taxpayers money; they need
to think again. ” Said Dr Muriel Newman.