Who's the driest of them all?

Michael Cullen
Finance Minister
Deputy Prime Minister and Cabinet trouble-shooter

Finance Minister Michael Cullen is seen by many in business as the Cabinet's "fiscal dry" with a firm grip on the Government's coffers.

Bill Falconer - who chairs many prominent companies such as Hellaby Holdings, Kiwifruit International, Oyster Bay Marlborough Vineyards and Restaurant Brands - is one of several businessmen who gives him a tick. "Michael himself as a keeper of the books is quite dry and I think he finds a lot of Treasury advice palatable in that sense.

"It suits him probably to think that all the benefits to business are given by [New Zealand] Trade and Enterprise and 'I don't have to do that somewhere else'."

Falconer, a former top-flight public servant himself, questions if the regulatory framework that the Government has introduced "will just make things harder".

ASB Bank managing director Hugh Burrett agrees Cullen has done a "good steady job".

"I actually think he's probably kept the lid on expenditure to some extent and tried to control what could have got out of hand with the surpluses."

But company chairman Roderick Deane questions why Cullen has presided over a surplus which will snowball to $6.1 billion by the middle of this year, he emphasises.

"I think tax rates are too high and the surplus is probably larger than it really needs to be," said the peripatetic chairman of companies such as ANZ-National, Fletcher Building and Telecom.

"But nonetheless fiscal policy in an overall sense has been pretty responsible."

Falconer adds Cullen's rationale for refusing to reduce the New Zealand corporate rate from 33 per cent to the 30 per cent rate enjoyed by Australia should be contested by business.

Cullen says Australian companies pay just as much once additional imposts such as payroll taxes are added. But Falconer maintains the company tax rate "is a very important driver in itself".

"You don't go round and add up all your taxes," said Falconer. "I think he's got it wrong there."

"The strength of the corporate tax rate is a driver for business performance and if you want to encourage business it should be by way of tax.

"If you've got to queue up for New Zealand Trade and Enterprise to get a grant it feels like cheating ... but to take advantage of a tax break - that's what we're all about."


Don Brash
National finance spokesman

National leader and former Reserve Bank Governor

National finance spokesman Don Brash is a bit of a "poster-boy" for business right now.

Riding high in the political polls on the back of his campaign against so-called "Maori privilege", Brash has uttered little this year on his own key shadow portfolio responsibility - finance.

Company chairman Roderick Deane, whose own former career as a Reserve Bank deputy governor and free-market businessman puts him in a similar philosophical camp to Brash, takes issue with claims that the National leader's race campaign has provided the drawcard for business.

Deane points out that many business people are simply fed up with creeping re-regulation. "It's part of the reason why the business community will grab at the philosophies of a Don Brash," said Deane.

"It's not about racial divisiveness - it's actually much more about 'Well here's somebody who might have a more sensible commercial agenda'."

There are signs that business wants Brash to address wider issues instead of constantly harping on about the Treaty of Waitangi, or the state of Prime Minister Helen Clark's marriage.

"He's got to move on," said company chairman Bill Falconer. "I want to hear what he's going to say about health and what he's going to say about education. I also want to hear more about what he's got to say on tax."

ASB Bank's Hugh Burrett concedes Brash has yet to put much on the table to alert business to the economic policies he would implement if National gained the Treasury benches at the next election.

"You can almost feel for any politician in Opposition," said Burrett. "You can't show your colours too soon - but you've got to got to remain in the public eye somehow."

Burrett says it is difficult to make a direct comparison between Cullen and Brash. "They come from different political fronts so will have different attitudes ... to tax and so on."

Said Fletcher Building chief executive Ralph Waters, "I don't think you'd see Brash having the courage to go to election here saying, 'We really need a capital gains tax and to means test our pensioners ... it's not going to be popular, but if we want the numbers to add up we've got to do that'. Nobody would have the guts to do that here under MMP."

Waters said Brash told businesses that those two issues are "not on our agenda". But he could be a "one-term person" if he got the right things done.