By DITA DE BONI
Business leaders pushing for details about economic policies on offer for the economy this election peppered politicians with questions at the Business Crossfire Debate in Auckland yesterday.
But despite a two-hour barrage of rhetoric by the would-be economic ministers of the five main parties, the corporate audience seemed none-the-wiser on how each party would integrate the roles of government and business.
The uncertainty was voiced by panel participant and Ascot Hospital managing director Lester Levy, who said the politicians' responses had been programmed to reflect their parties rather than solving the problems facing businesspeople.
"There wasn't a great depth of thinking - it was a little superficial," he said.
The debate - arranged by the Employers and Manufacturers Federation and co-sponsored by the BNZ and Arthur Andersen - comes just one day after a New Zealand Herald-DigiPoll survey indicated some 30 per cent of voters were undecided about which party offered the best economic plan.
Replying to Mr Levy's question on whether lower taxes would necessarily reduce central revenue, National's Bill English and Act's Rodney Hide both said growth flowing from low taxation would more than restore Government wealth.
Mr Anderton said tax had been reduced five times since 1982, and had simply been replaced with more user charges "which means if you can pay for it you can use it".
Ponsonby Pies director Katrina Cole briefed the panel on her difficulties with tax collection, saying medium-sized businesses could expect to fill up to 168 forms in a year for the Inland Revenue Department.
All participants agreed that tax collection reform should be undertaken, with Mr Anderton suggesting Alliance would favour getting rid of GST in favour of a FTT (Financial Transaction Tax) system; Dr Cullen offering government assistance for small businesses filing returns; and Mr English saying a trade-off might have to be struck between the cost of compliance and the amount of tax collected.
Dr Cullen was dealt a slew of questions from business heads eager to learn more about Labour's proposed changes to the Employment Contracts Act, which Mr English described as "one of the pillars of growth in New Zealand".
Dr Cullen said industrial legislation had to ensure "bad" employers would not exploit the power granted to them under the current Act, thereby forcing "good" employers to lower wages.
He denied compelling collective contracts to be negotiated between employers and unions was a move to force employees into compulsory union membership.
After the debate, audience member Allan Johnson of Wiri Trust said the debate had been entertaining but was more about point scoring than anything else and had not adequately addressed the tariff issue for exporters.
He said: "The audience needed more guidance on specifics, like what will be done to ease the tariff situation for exporters."
Point-scoring tops in business debate
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