Latest / Best of Business / Simon Bridges: Auckland Business Chamber CEO voices concerns surcharge ban will harm small businesses

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Simon Bridges: Auckland Business Chamber CEO voices concerns surcharge ban will harm small businesses · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from newstalks'd be follow this
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  Speaker 2: The New Zealand Chambers of Commerce have banded together and
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  Speaker 2: spoken out against the government's surcharge band they're worried it's
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  Speaker 2: going to harm small businesses. Simon Bridges is the CEO
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  Speaker 2: of the Auckland Business Chamber and speaking on behalf of
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  Speaker 2: all of them and of course a former National Party
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  Speaker 2: leader and with us.
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  Speaker 3: Now, Hey, Simon, Hey, evening, Heather.
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  Speaker 2: Any idea how big the impact is going to be
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  Speaker 2: on small and medium sized retailers.
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  Speaker 3: I think really significant. I mean the first point I'd
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  Speaker 3: make is you mentioned the New Zealand Chambers twenty nine
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  Speaker 3: chambers from Northland to Southland. Yesterday my email was going hot.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, they are really concerned about this all over
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  Speaker 3: the country and that's because I think to answer your question,
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  Speaker 3: we're talking about ninety seven percent of businesses which are
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  Speaker 3: small and medium businesses. And the reality is the banning
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  Speaker 3: of a surcharge is it a cost free exercise Despite
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  Speaker 3: what the government may think. Consumers may like it, but
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  Speaker 3: someone has to pay merchants and I think the news
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  Speaker 3: on that is. Look, it's either going to be through
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  Speaker 3: price hikes that consumers may not appreciate or understand, or
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  Speaker 3: it's going to be the poor old sme in areas
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  Speaker 3: like retail, hospo, tourism that are going to be having
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  Speaker 3: to find a way to pay for it. And I
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  Speaker 3: hate to tell again the government the bad news, but
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  Speaker 3: those SMEs aren't exactly in Clover at the moment.
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  Speaker 2: No, are you surprised by the strength of feeling out there.
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  Speaker 2: I am.
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  Speaker 3: Look, you know, at first blush, I think you know,
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  Speaker 3: you see the announcement, you think, oh, well that all
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  Speaker 3: sounds very nice. That's well intentioned. There's a lot of
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  Speaker 3: people will like that. But I think, you know, when
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  Speaker 3: you really think about it, there is a merchant fee
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  Speaker 3: from banks or from other payment providers. It does have
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  Speaker 3: to be paid. And so look, actually, one way to
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  Speaker 3: think about this is all the government's doing by banning
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  Speaker 3: the surchargers is they're making the whole thing less transparent.
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  Speaker 3: The fee, the cost, the price in the end to
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  Speaker 3: someone that someone's got to pay, whether it's consumers or SMEs,
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  Speaker 3: it does and go away. It's just being hidden.
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  Speaker 2: Now, what do you think is going on here? So
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to put your political hat on and explain
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  Speaker 2: this to me. Because this is a government that's supposed
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  Speaker 2: to be pro business, pro smaller medium enterprise, and yet
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  Speaker 2: they've done something that they know full well is going
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  Speaker 2: to hurt these guys. Why they do it?
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  Speaker 3: What I suppose this is in there and there, you know,
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  Speaker 3: there was so many you know, unintended consequences come from that.
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  Speaker 3: They've got good intentions. They're sitting there thinking, well, this
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  Speaker 3: is going to be good for consumers. We've heard a
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  Speaker 3: lot of gripes about this out on the stumps, but they,
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  Speaker 3: you know, I think in the Chamber of commerce movement
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  Speaker 3: thinks haven't really thought it through. I think the other
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  Speaker 3: surprising thing about this is when you think about someone
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  Speaker 3: has to pay it may well be in many cases
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  Speaker 3: that the retailers that the SME is paying it. But
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  Speaker 3: I still, for the life and we can't see why,
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  Speaker 3: you know, you wouldn't have gone to source of the fees, which,
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  Speaker 3: as I say, as banks fundamentally and other payment providers,
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  Speaker 3: why they haven't gone there and instead they're probably getting
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  Speaker 3: you know, ninety seven percent of businesses the SMEs. That's
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  Speaker 3: a bit beyond me.
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  Speaker 2: Listen, have you got a grip yet on just how
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  Speaker 2: this actually works? How much the banks are responsible, how
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  Speaker 2: much for how much the visit and MasterCard guides are
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  Speaker 2: responsible for. Because it's so complex, it's really hard to rewind,
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  Speaker 2: isn't it.
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  Speaker 3: No, Look we haven't. I mean, what's happened yesterday. The
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  Speaker 3: announcement was on Monday yesterday. As I say, my emails
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  Speaker 3: were hot, literally from the morns of all the Cambridge
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  Speaker 3: through the Southland and Queenstown Chambers of Commerce. They were
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  Speaker 3: all on. They were getting a lot of feedback, so
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  Speaker 3: I couldn't tell you a percentage. I think what's true is,
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  Speaker 3: you know, if we're being objective about this, there will
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  Speaker 3: be cases where the bank put on you know X,
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  Speaker 3: and there'll be retailers who put on a bit more
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  Speaker 3: than that they sweetened the deal. But I'll give you
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  Speaker 3: an example I just saw in from the Queenstown Chamber.
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  Speaker 3: You know, travel agents they can no longer charge any
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  Speaker 3: commission on you know, the likes of Air New Zealand fees.
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  Speaker 3: You know, so if the punter comes in and wants
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  Speaker 3: to pay for that on credit card, you know, by
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  Speaker 3: tapping their card. Look, actually, one way to think about
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  Speaker 3: it as a travel agent is helping pay for that
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  Speaker 3: person's holiday, right, they are paying real cost with that.
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  Speaker 3: So that's the sort of thing we're talking about.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, do you reckon you can get them
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  Speaker 2: to back down.
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  Speaker 3: I think we'll try. I mean, I think what we
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  Speaker 3: need to do is talk to ministers. Look, there's definitely
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  Speaker 3: an issue here, but the way through isn't I don't
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  Speaker 3: think unnecessarily this. They're talking about a bill before the
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  Speaker 3: end of the year, and you can beat your bottom
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  Speaker 3: dollar that the Chambers of Commerce will be submitted on it.
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  Speaker 2: Go you, that's the spirit. Simon Bridges, CEO of the
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  Speaker 2: Auckland Business Chamber.
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