Most of New Zealand's business community does not believe the Government has a co-ordinated plan to raise the country's economic performance.
New Zealand businesses overwhelmingly want to see such a -ordinated plan. A BusinessNZ survey released yesterday showed that businesses overwhelming wanted to see a plan.
The survey was released at the Deloitte-BusinessNZ Election Conference in Wellington.
Deloitte chief executive Murray Jack said that, disturbingly, nearly two-thirds of the businesses surveyed did not believe, or were unsure, there was a co-ordinated plan to lift economic performance.
"Often, governments call for business to get behind their efforts to grow New Zealand's economy. It helps if business has a clear line of sight on the pillars and levers of growth."
Deloitte managing tax partner Thomas Pippos said close to 100% of respondents thought it was important for the Government to have a co-ordinated plan to raise economic performance.
Only one-third thought the Government had any such plan and even more were unsure.
The rest thought there was no plan.
Labour finance spokesman David Cunliffe said the business community had provided a damning commentary on National's underperformance as an economic manager.
"Labour has been saying for almost three years that this is a rudderless government. National has spent that three years without an economic plan, and even the recent downgrade by two of the international credit agencies hasn't sharpened its mind."
Labour did not expect the business community to support all of Labour's policies, but the one thing it was not hearing from business was that Labour did not have a plan, he said.
Mr Pippos said that whether the Government had a detailed economic plan might be somewhat moot.
"What is not, is that the business community is generally unaware of it and by implication their desire is to understand the detail behind any government strategy to grow the economy and how it will be implemented - and not just that it has a `goal' to do so."
The response to the survey also provided some key ingredients that businesses would like to see included in any plan development and implementation, he said.
First, 95% of respondents wanted a clearly articulated set of principles to guide fiscal and regulatory decision-making and the implementation of policies.
More than half of the respondents were concerned about the uncertainty that existed around what constituted tax avoidance and 77% thought the Government should be doing more to provide certainty in that area, Mr Pippos said.
"This isn't surprising given the recent actions of Inland Revenue to take the avoidance boundary to places traditionally thought to fall far from it.
More concerning is, probably, that the department's views as to where the boundary should be pushed are still evolving."
It was not unreasonable for businesses to be looking for clarity from regulators, with the avoidance boundary simply being one example, Mr Pippos said.
Not surprisingly, the survey showed that businesses would like to see further commitment to a low-rate, relatively flat tax structure with few if any tax breaks, Mr Jack said.
Not only were new taxes unpopular but so, too, was the reintroduction of a research and development tax credit. The latter was only third on the list of preferred research and development initiatives behind the development of stronger connections between business and science, and more money for applied scientific research, Mr Jack said.
There was a strong call for greater private sector involvement in infrastructure, including the use of public-private partnerships. But only 45% of survey respondents thought the ultrafast broadband project would bring productivity gains.
Businesses highlighted concerns at the lack of investment in skills and productivity measures.
Nearly 75% said not enough was being done to support apprenticeships and formal industry training, while 66% believed school-leavers were not well prepared for the workforce. Only a quarter thought the immigration system met the needs of business.
"With unemployment - particularly among our youth - elevated, there is clearly much more to do here," Mr Jack said.
