The National Party believes that regulation is necessary to alleviate market externalities, but we recognise that it is not something to implement lightly without examining the wider effects on all stakeholders. Too often it is bad for business without yielding much in terms of protection. Therefore, a balance must be found that considers both the interests of consumers and economic development.

Last term, our party achieved great advances by bringing sick leave up to a reasonable level based on the evidence, stopping the destructive solidarity strikes legislation put forth by the Greens, toughening-up the Commerce Commission, and giving more choice to savers by allowing for more contribution rates in a KiwiSaver account. National has done much to advance both job creation, fair markets, and economic choice in this country, and this next Parliament we can do even better.

We'll look to reform the employment system in this country. We will reduce the influence of militant unions on New Zealand society by undoing some of the damaging changes made the Green Party during the Fifth Parliament by bringing back ninety-day trials and restoring collective agreements to what they should be; a fair negotiation between two defined parties. We'll allow pay deductions for partial industrial action to ensure that employers aren't paying people who aren't doing their job. We'll oversee the return of the youth wage which will improve employment for younger Kiwis and reform the way pay and entitlements are set to make the process more independent. Alongside this, National will once again bring an end to restricted trading days, which reduce the rights of workers and impose tradition on Kiwi businesses and our economy. Finally, we will tackle the scourge of worker fatalities. While this problem has gone unaddressed by successive Green-led governments, we will work with industry to stamp out deaths in the workplace.

The business sector will see positive advances. The New Zealand Business Number will be broadened in both the public and private sectors, reducing paperwork. National also will continue its good work in advancing competitive markets and giving flexibility to workers over their own savings. When it comes to investment, we'll oversee an increase in funding for all our Crown Research Institutes to drive forward Kiwi innovation as a part of our modern industrial strategy.

The National Party will:

• Make a number of substantial amendments to the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2019 to reduce burden on Kiwi businesses and lessen the influence of militant unions on New Zealand society. We’ll institute ninety-day trials, a fairer system of pay deductions for partial strikes, and fix collective agreements.
• Restore the youth wage and investigate the possibility of expanding the array of different wage levels to encourage employment among different groups, including those who face long-term unemployment.
• Repeal the Shop Trading Hours (Restricted Trading Hours) Amendment Act 2019 to give employees and businesses the right to choose to work on public holidays. Restricted trading days impose tradition on the New Zealand economy to the detriment of growth, and the incomes of our workers.
• Continue the successful policy of privatisation to raise revenue for infrastructure investment, and allow the private sector to provide services more efficiently. We’ll sell Air New Zealand to Kiwi investors, and ensure that the government’s share in our state owned energy companies is reduced to exactly 51%.
• Pass legislation to expand the usage of the New Zealand Business Number within the public and private sector. This will allow small businesses and charities to access the same unique identification number which reduces paperwork when conducting business and dealing with the government.
• Increase funding for all our Crown Research Institutes. We’ll ensure that as New Zealand heads into the 2020s more money is going towards scientific innovation for the betterment of our society. The government failed to do so, so we will.
• Establish a new Deed of Understanding with NZ Post to decrease the burdens of Kiwibank. Kiwibank was touted as a legitimate, competitive alternative to the Big Four and it hasn’t materialised, with the Big Four now earning superprofits. By cutting down on Kiwibank’s operational costs, it will be better positioned to make banking more competitive in our country.
• Properly fund the Commerce Commission so it can examine and investigate the state of competition in an industry on the recommendation of a Minister. This will help identify the causes of ill-functioning markets and guide policy.
• Fundamentally reform the way wages and work entitlements are set. We will establish an independent parliamentary commissioner to handle this subject and return powers to Parliament so that political extremists cannot adjust key macroeconomic levers on a whim.
• Address the increased amounts of worker fatalities in New Zealand by promoting safety materials in the industries which have seen the greatest increases in deaths, particularly construction and agriculture. We will share information and expand outreach for temporary and casual workers.
• Allow betters to use domestic bookkeepers, and reject all calls to ban microtransactions. The paternalist posturing instituted by this government would be swept aside by National.

Finance:

The New Zealand National Party will work to promote efficient government spending alongside lower tax rates in order to grow a more productive economy for New Zealanders. The National Party believes that while taxation is necessary for good government to function, we should seek to reduce the negative impact taxes have on everyday New Zealanders. This means reducing the burden government has on the taxpayer by advocating for a lower rates of taxation when possible and by pursuing less economically-disruptive modes of taxation. We'll cut income taxes by adjusting the middle-income brackets, undo the complex tax brackets imposed by the Greens, and seek to create a uniform corporate tax rate. This uniform rate will ensure that small businesses do not have any artificial hurdles to their growth. Finally, we will take on and repeal the job-killing, investment-stifling capital-gains tax we saw expanded by the Green-led government in the Fifth Parliament.

Finance also has been neglected from a regulatory and legislative standpoint under successive Green-led governments while we have consistently taken the lead. Last term we extended access to consumer credit through new financier liability legislation and we worked to streamline the rule-making process that the Reserve Bank follows.

In the next Parliament, we will ensure the long term fiscal sustainability of the New Zealand government by establishing an Independent Fiscal Institution as an office of Parliament, which will monitor compliance with budget responsibility rules and long term fiscal strategies. We will push for a smarter, liberal Foreign Direct Investment regime, as this has the potential to deliver more jobs, improved management practices, and more credit to our country. In the same vein, we will deregulate some aspects of the insurance industry and harmonise some standards with Australia to deliver cheaper and higher quality insurance products in this country.

While the Greens have watched the banking industry become one in which the Big Four earn superprofits, National will actively work to deliver more competition by allowing for uniform open banking standards to be implemented by the Reserve Bank. We secure the Reserve Bank’s integrity against political actors through reforms of its board and the position of Governor.

The National Party will:

• Cut personal income taxes for middle earners by at least $200m while undoing the tax-bracket complications the Greens imposed recently. We’ll adjust income tax brackets so that more of your money is taxed at 15%, rather than at 25%.
• Create an Independent Fiscal Institution to monitor the government's fiscal responsibilities and ensure compliance with fiscal strategy and targets, in addition to commenting on long-term fiscal sustainability and fiscal risks.
• Pass the Overseas Investment (Liberalisation) Amendment Bill, which would greatly liberalise controls over foreign investment. Foreign direct investment goes through an onerous process as it is. We will streamline it by making introducing a risk-based screening regime rather than an activity-based one. Foreign direct investment brings jobs, lower prices, and even lower interest rates. We can’t pass it up.
• Adopt a regulatory framework on open banking by passing the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Open Banking) Amendment Bill. This practice has been established in the UK and Australia is examining its prospects as well. Open banking has the potential to bring forward a more competitive banking industry in New Zealand and bring better financial services to consumers.
• Deregulate the insurance industry and harmonise some regulatory standards with Australia. The financial sector of both of our countries are relatively integrated and by creating common standards New Zealand consumers can enjoy better, cheaper insurance.
• Put forward a uniform corporate tax rate in our country. With a uniform corporate tax system, this country will be a more competitive and fairer to enterprise. It will encourage the growth of small firms and remove any distortions our current two-tiered system might create by unintended consequence.
• Repeal the capital-gains tax by stealth. This tax is exorbitantly high and is beyond any recommendation from mainstream economists. This hurts rural landholders, decreases access to credit, and stifles development of property. Instead, we’ll look into taxing imputed income if it is necessary.
• Provide a new mandate for the Reserve Bank of New Zealand to focus its attention on the effective management of risk rather than the reduction of risk. We will also restructure the Reserve Bank to deliver a Board-based governance structure rather than one dominated by the Governor.
• Shift from direct towards indirect taxation. By increasing the amount of indirect taxation in proportion to direct taxation, we reduce market distortions and promote economic freedom as these taxes are more avoidable and generally do not impact growth in a negative manner.

Housing:

National has been the loudest voice on the housing issues plaguing our country, and it is clear that the other parties have shirked their own duties here. Instead of improving the situation, this Green-led governments have worsened the rental and housing crisis by imposing new red tape over the rental market, reducing the provision of housing. This is despite the economic consensus that tenancy restrictions only serve to increase rents and decrease the provision of housing in the long term. This last term, the Greens did not even bother solving the problem in the private sector either. Their plan is simply to dump more taxpayer money into state housing rather than address the problem with private capital. With there being total inaction on the private housing market, the largest part of New Zealand’s housing stock, it is up to National to improve the housing and rental markets and ensure that more people can get the shelter they need.

If elected, National will reform the tenancy rules imposed on landlords in order to facilitate the movement of homes back into the rental market. We will remove onerous rules which diminish the provision of housing. Rather than scapegoating landlords for the failures of politicians, we will instead facilitate a better market where more people have access to their needs. We will restructure the Rental Warrant of Fitness scheme to make it into a market-based opt-in scheme. This will make a burden into a marketable standard of quality for those seeking tenants.

Fundamentally, National will work to reform the Resource Management Act. Unlike the NIMBYs in the Green Party who will oppose streamlined development, National candidates for Parliament recognise that the only way to solve the housing crisis is to get more homes built. By streamlining this Act, National will remove unneeded bureaucracy and get the private housing market back into good order. The Housing Accords system will be touched up as well to suit immediate housing demands.

• Reform the Resource Management Act to promote the construction of more housing by the private sector. As it stands, bureaucracy and red tape massively inhibit the construction of new homes and is the main cause of high rents and house prices.
• Fundamentally reform or scrap the tenancy rules implemented during the last term. We will remove onerous rules which prevent new housing from being placed on the rental market and actually work to hurt renters across the board as rents increase.
• Turn the Rental Warrant of Fitness scheme into an opt-in one. As an opt-in scheme, the Warrant of Fitness scheme can become less of a burden which blocks rental housing from going on the market and instead it would become a marketable standard of quality for prospective tenants to look for.
• Reject the Green strategy for the housing market, which is to break the private system only to replace it with an inefficient and bloated state housing system. We know that the housing crisis can be solved without wasting taxpayer funds.
• Touch up the Housing Accords system as needed to allow for denser developments. This will help in the short term and will address some of the issues with the system as it exists at present.

Primary Industries:

The National Party knows that in order to have a strong New Zealand and strong regional economies, we need to have a healthy primary sector. The last term saw some of the most crippling and extreme measures taken against our Primary Industries, with the government instituting harsh red tape and restrictions in an irresponsible, ideology-driven way. National provides an alternative to this as we will cut the waste and enable actors in the primary sector to prosper independently after giving our primary producers the basic tools to succeed. Last term is great evidence of this work, as we introduced new statistical tools for the forestry sector and also improved our country’s odds in the fight against Mycoplasma bovis. National believes that such public-facing issues require state involvement, and we support the primary sector in that regard.

If elected, we will create a regulatory environment which is conducive to entrepreneurship and one which promotes the secure production of our primary products going forward. We will ensure that there is new biosecurity regulations in place to ensure the health of primary industries, following up on our work with M. bovis. We will work to improve the marketability of New Zealand’s agricultural and fishing sectors abroad, and encourage innovation within those industries. Finally, we’ll reduce the risks of agriculture by promoting water capture and irrigation projects. With less risk, our farmers will be able to secure the credit they need to adopt more efficient farming methods for the future. Our primary industry policy is one which is based upon letting people be self-reliant, and it’s one which will deliver results instead of cutting the regions down.

The National Party will:

• End organics sector funding and good food certification programmes and instead ensure the AsureQuality SOE performs this function. This way, our country has food certifications necessary to market products abroad but it doesn’t waste money doing so.
• Amend the Biosecurity Act to protect against new pests which threaten our agricultural sector and ensure the sector’s continued growth into the future. The current iteration is over a decade old and must be up to date.
• Support water capture and irrigation projects as these projects will greatly enhance the productivity of farms, reduce risk in agriculture, and even improve the environment by flushing away excess algae.
• We’ll put forward a partial privatisation of Landcorp to fund our infrastructure projects, while also freeing up more land for the private economy and newer farmers.
• Issue new biosecurity regulations which protect our farmers from invasive pests. New Zealand faces new pests and diseases constantly, and it is crucial that the government updates our biosecurity regime to address them.
• Institute new schemes which direct some proceeds from primary producers towards sectoral organisations. These funds will be used to develop better marketing, research better processes, and improve the relevant primary produce in question. We will focus on strengthening horticulture, fruit production, and oysters first if elected.
• Adjust animal welfare legislation to provide for religious and conscientious objection to stunned slaughter. This is a change that Jewish and Muslim communities in New Zealand have long advocated for and we will work to uphold religious freedom.
• Add place-of-origin labeling for forestry products so exporters and domestic suppliers can sell the high-quality New Zealand forestry brand.
• Ensure that labour shortages in agriculture and forestry are met. We will adjust seasonal worker visas as needed to meet the needs of primary producers in New Zealand (see Foreign Affairs).

Regional Development: