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Hayley Horan: Wellington Chamber of Commerce CEO on their election priorities to foster growth and investment · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from Newstalk ZB. Follow this
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  Speaker 2: You can tell it's election year, of course, given the
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  Speaker 2: queue that's forming from various groups putting their wish lists out.
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  Speaker 2: This morning, Wellington, they want less red tape, more private investment,
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  Speaker 2: faster infrastructure, and they want Wellington back to New Zealand's
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  Speaker 2: innovation capital with a new business growth fund. Now, Hayley
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  Speaker 2: Horan is the Chief Executive, Business Central, also Wellington Chamber
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  Speaker 2: of Commerce, and is back with us. Hayley, morning to you.
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  Speaker 3: Good morning, Mike.
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  Speaker 1: How are you?
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  Speaker 2: I'm very well indeed. You've got plenty of heavy hitters,
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  Speaker 2: including people like Bishop. I mean, are you talking to
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  Speaker 2: them regularly anyway outside of election year, and are they
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  Speaker 2: hearing what you're saying?
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  Speaker 3: Oh, look, there's many forums for those conversations, and we can,
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  Speaker 3: on the close of this interview, I can share an
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  Speaker 3: opportunity for our businesses to join a great conversation next week.
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  Speaker 3: But ultimately, we've put our asks out for the government
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  Speaker 3: because we genuinely believe this year is The promises we
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  Speaker 3: want to hear and the ones that we want business
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  Speaker 3: and government to keep around practical actions for growing our
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  Speaker 3: private sector across our beautiful Greater Wellington region.
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  Speaker 2: Red tape meaning what? Because everybody asks for less red tape.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's great. So how we manage our tax, you know,
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  Speaker 3: come on, the whole payment structure of the IRD, let's
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  Speaker 3: think about that. There's multiple payments through the year, one
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  Speaker 3: right in the middle of summer. Let's simplify that. how
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  Speaker 3: we do cash flow, how we're being paid. Come on,
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  Speaker 3: we need to speed that up. Day-to-day administration, we don't
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  Speaker 3: get paid for in our medium or small businesses. How
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  Speaker 3: do we strip that back and simplify? Okay.
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  Speaker 2: Private investment, is that a government's job or is it
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  Speaker 2: private enterprise's job?
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  Speaker 3: I think it's both because you have to have the
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  Speaker 3: settings that create confidence in order to have private sector investment. And,
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  Speaker 3: you know, infrastructure is one. Like, let's keep those long-term
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  Speaker 3: plans going. Let's get into action. Because once we know
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  Speaker 3: that there's a commitment that builds the confidence, people will invest.
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  Speaker 3: And it's not just investment from a capital context. It's
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  Speaker 3: investment in employing people. So we feel like we know
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  Speaker 3: things are moving. That's where we start to grow our business, employ.
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  Speaker 3: And you put some simple structures in place from an
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  Speaker 3: administration context, and all of a sudden you're growing your privacy.
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  Speaker 2: When you're talking about faster infrastructure, they would come back
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  Speaker 2: and say, we're reforming the RMA. We've got fast track.
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  Speaker 2: You just got Mount Vic ticked off the other day.
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  Speaker 2: It's in the go zone. So they would answer positively
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  Speaker 2: in that, wouldn't they?
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  Speaker 3: Well, they would. So it's an and. And now how
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  Speaker 3: are we going to, with that long-term infrastructure, ensure there's
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  Speaker 3: a pipeline of fantastic students, learners, professionals coming out of
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  Speaker 3: our education system that can deliver on that? So it's
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  Speaker 3: kind of and, and. And why we're pretty proud of
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  Speaker 3: the election priorities we put forward for a couple of reasons. One,
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  Speaker 3: it's not a laundry list. They are all interconnected for
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  Speaker 3: a long-term private sector growth in Wellington. When we ask
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  Speaker 3: for those long-term plans and infrastructure, what we're saying is
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  Speaker 3: no flip-flops on this, please. We need to get out there.
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  Speaker 3: We need to plan. We want people to come and invest, right?
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  Speaker 3: But I want to talk a little bit about that
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  Speaker 3: investment strategy in skills, talent, and productivity, because we want
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  Speaker 3: to make sure that we've got the earn and learn
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  Speaker 3: structures underway. We need our tradies to be coming out
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  Speaker 3: with the business skills, digital skills for the future, with quoting,
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  Speaker 3: cash flow, all those kind of things that actually help
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  Speaker 3: Our next apprentice becomes the next employer to create efficient businesses.
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  Speaker 3: So where are we in our vet system and our
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  Speaker 3: university system as well investing in not just the skill itself,
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  Speaker 3: but for business, AI, digital tools. Heard you talk about
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  Speaker 3: that this morning. We need to create and ensure that
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  Speaker 3: our education system, our training systems are robust for future businesses.
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  Speaker 3: skills required to be productive.
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  Speaker 2: Lovely to have you back on the program, Hayley. Hayley Horan,
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  Speaker 2: come on, she said. Like her style, sit on the
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  Speaker 2: first time she came on the program. I like the
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  Speaker 2: cut of her jib. I like the cut of her
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  Speaker 2: jib even more now. She's Chief Executive of the Business
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  Speaker 2: Central and Wellington Chamber of Commerce.
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