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Advocacy for business by the BusinessNZ Network | |
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Businesses are trying to source skills from the NZ labour market wherever they can, BusinessNZ’s Kirk Hope says, but this is not always possible given severe skill shortages across all industries and regions, and migrants will always necessarily make up part of our labour market. “We need to ensure NZ is an attractive place for skilled migrants and need more coherent government policies across infrastructure, education, immigration and welfare settings, to be able to compete against other countries in the global war for talent.” | | | |
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Working holiday makers are needed to alleviate some skill shortage issues. This week the Govt announced partial changes to immigration regulations, including doubling the number of working holiday makers allowed to enter NZ, and extending the visas of those already here. Around 4,000 working holiday makers are already here and around 21,000 have had their applications approved. Businesses should think about utilising their international networks to help attract working holiday makers back to NZ, and Govt should launch a global attraction strategy targeting this cohort, BusinessNZ says. | | | |
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Lower interest rates and restricted land supply have pushed up urban land prices, according to a government report. It says the global decline in interest rates brought greater demand for housing, but land supply was not responsive enough to meet the demand, and escalated NZ house prices. The impact goes beyond housing, says BusinessNZ, bringing increased costs for business premises too, and businesses would support the suggested remedy of reforms to the RMA, increased infrastructure investment and better local government support to open up urban land supply. | | | |
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The Research & Development Tax Incentive scheme has delivered $150 million in tax credits to businesses over the last two years, to date supporting research and development activity worth over $1 billion. The scheme is in support of the Govt’s goal of NZ achieving R&D worth 2% of GDP by 2028. The RDTI scheme provides a 15% tax credit for eligible businesses that spend over $50,000 on eligible R&D. To find if your business and your R&D are eligible, visit RDTI | | | |
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Business leaders with financial or operational control are asked to take the Deloitte Sustainability Snapshot Survey 2022. The survey asks how you see your role in engaging on issues like climate risk and social impact. Last year’s survey found most respondents were tracking well on their journey towards sustainability, while noting that lack of resources or capability and difficulty in measuring return on investment were CFOs’ main barriers to sustainability. Please take the 2022 survey here | | | |
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NZ’s emissions trading scheme is long-established, and is the foundation of NZ’s approach to reducing emissions, but is still not properly understood by many, says the BusinessNZ Energy Council (BEC). BEC’s latest Energy 101 explains the pricing of emissions and sale of carbon credits, both in the ETS and in the voluntary market where businesses can account for their own emissions, purchasing credits for offset. The carbon market is essential to NZ’s efforts to reach net carbon zero, BEC says. | | | |
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AdvocacyUpdate is an update on recent activity & advocacy by the BusinessNZ Network | |
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