On Wednesday Judith Collins launched National’s Business Start policy whereby unemployed workers could access their KiwiSaver retirement fund to start a small business. Collins said she had started three small businesses and all had been successful. This was probably during the time her opponent in the election was struggling with the task of wrapping fish and chips.
The Business Start concept is the sort of policy needed at this time. It is a means for people who have lost their job and who have the idea to start a small business, but lack the capital to do so, to realise their dream. Any worker who lost their job after March 1 would receive a $1,000 voucher for financial advice from the Government (a grand wasted if this lot are still in power), access to $20,000 of their KiwiSaver retirement funds, another $10,000 in GST or provisional tax credits and the waiver of the $130 Companies Office registration fee.
Collins said one of the hardest things when starting up a small business is getting your hands on capital. She said KiwiSaver funds belong to the individuals paying in so why shouldn’t they be allowed to use them. National, she said, are very aware of the situation many New Zealanders are facing (economic ruin) and they’re asking for some possible solutions. The different components of the policy would be worth a potential total of $30,000 to each person applying. There would also be $10 million for a contestable fund which business mentors providing advice to new businesses could apply for.
On the same day, Grant Robertson announced mortgage holidays could be extended and the wage subsidy could be brought back if needed, that is if we went back to a level 3 or 4 lockdown. WHAT A CONTRAST!! While the mortgage holiday extension will help, where, for God’s sake, is the vision and the ideas to give people some positivity for getting out of this Government-imposed crisis? It’s beyond them of course. We need more of the types of policy Judith announced today where people can see a way forward.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the strategy of this bereft of ideas lot is to play the fear game up to the election. Keep the comrades pinned down in their Kiwi bubble on handouts and have them imprisoned in a mindset that says what a wonderful job Ardern is doing keeping them free of a deadly disease. This is wholly negative and detrimental to the country as a whole both economically and socially not to mention mentally.
If the majority of the population believe this, as Tova’s poll would seem to imply, they had better also believe that this nirvana can’t last forever. This is not reality, and at some point, reality has to kick in. The country cannot afford to keep doling out huge dollops of money in what the Government would like you to think is a panacea for the problems we face. This does not encourage people to get back to work or have aspiration. It does the opposite. It encourages welfare and apathy.
I am hopeful this is a taste of the policies to come from National. If so, It will look like Judith is in overdrive while Jacinda is stuck in neutral trying to find first gear.
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