‘National is screwing small business’ and here’s what needs to change – Whananaki General Store owner Dallas Gurney

We haven’t gone broke but it would’ve been touch and go if we hadn’t pumped our own money into it and we didn’t have family to help us out.

The light is at the end of the tunnel, they say. Maybe it is, but if that’s the case, it’s because of the ebb and flow of the economy rather than anything this Government has done to help.

Dallas and Donna Gurney outside the Whananaki Store that they bought two years ago. Photo / Shayne Currie

In fact, this Government seems to be hell-bent on making life as tough as possible for small businesses like ours. They continue to crap all over us. And worse still, I don’t think they’ve noticed.

It started with the proposed addition of 4.5% to our payroll costs for casual sick leave. We are a seasonal business and employ a lot of casual summer workers. Some are teenagers, but for local families, it can often be much-needed extra money over Christmas when things are tight. In the past, when a casual employee has been sick, we’ve paid them. Sounds fair. No big deal. It actually happens rarely because we’re a summer operation and when the weather is good, people are a bit healthier.

But the Government has decided that instead of just giving people paid time off when they are sick, we need to pay every casual employee 4.5% more on top of their pay in case they do. That means between holiday pay and sick pay, we’re paying 12.5% on top of regular pay. How do we fund it? Fewer staff, do more ourselves. The employee loses and we lose.

The banning of the ability to pass on card transaction fees shows utter contempt for small businesses too. We choose not to pass on these fees at our shop, but I totally understand retailers that do as they are significant.

Instead of banning them outright at the source – the banks – they’ve just banned the small guy passing them on, so we pick up the tab for a technology that shouldn’t cost anything these days anyway. It’s a gravy train for the banks and their partners.

National wants to take the win from removing the stickers on the Eftpos machines that say “1.8% fee” but don’t have the balls to do the work to address the problem directly in the first place.

Surcharges on the likes of PayWave card payments are set to become a thing of the past. Photo / Sharepix

You can’t hit big banks too hard, they complain too much. Well, it’s about time small business got a little louder and fought back.

The last straw was the KiwiSaver changes earlier this month. The Government has halved its own annual contribution while doubling the employer’s contribution. Saving is a good thing and yes, it’s going to be a graduated change over a few years, but it’s yet another example of reducing its own responsibility and forcing the costs on to small employers like us. It’s council-like behaviour.

I would understand some of this being proposed by a Labour Government, but National? I don’t know what they stand for anymore. Are they just announcing stuff to divert attention from a terrible leader without due consideration to their base?

The alternative is that they know exactly what they’re doing and don’t care.

Incompetence is the more likely culprit, I think. That’s worse.

National – if you want to get back on track with small business, here are some policies that might help.

Make it easier for new businesses to pay tax. In the second year of business, you need to pay tax for the previous year and provisional tax for the coming year. It makes cashflow hard at a critical time when many businesses fail. Make it easier.Man up and ban the surcharge at the source. Hit the banks and their massive profits, not the little guy behind the counter. The banks will moan and they may even threaten, but you’ve got to realise the people that vote for you hate banks. Get back on our side.Make it clear you expect banks to lend to small businesses like ours. Banks don’t like us because we’re messy – we don’t have stable, nice, tidy salaries going into our account every week nor do we have an easy-to-value house as security. To get lending, you have to pay a ridiculous interest rate and put up your first child as collateral. Reward the brave, rather than punish them for not fitting in the boxes banks have created themselves. Banks will always find the easiest way to make money – we may not be easy, but we’re critical to growing the economy.

I’ve voted for both Labour and National in the past, largely dependent on the strength of the leader and the depth of talent around the Cabinet table. As a small business owner, National should now be my home, but with traditional National business-centric values so clearly absent, where do I take my vote now?

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