Another Labour attack on small businesses

“Labour is intent on treating small businesses like a cash cow and voters like fools,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Their policy to ban ‘hidden fees’ is as lazy and cynical as it gets. Who decides whether an insurance product is worthwhile? Who decides whether an extended warranty represents value for a particular customer? Those decisions should belong to the person spending their own money.

“This policy won’t make any difference to the cost of living, ironically, the ‘hidden fees’ will become even more hidden when they’re baked into the everyday price. Then everyone will have to pay them.

“Same goes for banning paywave fees. Jim and Margaret run a small business and a million dollars a year comes through paywave, if the fees are banned they’ll eat the 2% costs, that’s $20,000 off their bottom line. A lot of money for a small business of Kiwi battlers.

“This logic is how the ACT Party defeated National’s paywave proposal in Government. Unfortunately, Labour never learns, or maybe they do? Maybe they know this is bad policy, but at 25% Cynical Chris Hipkins is quite happy to rip off businesses and insult Kiwis’ intelligence for a few votes.

“We expect Labour’s policy to be economically illiterate, but this speaks to something even worse about how they view the country.

“It’s infantilising to Kiwis to insist they’re incapable of making basic decisions for themselves. New Zealanders can say no to an extended warranty, they can decide whether an insurance product is worth paying for, they can compare prices and read the terms of a contract.

“Kiwis are smart enough and capable enough to sort their lives out. What they need from a Government to address the cost of living is a commitment to cut the waste and grow the country and get rid of red tape that imposes more costs on people.

“This week’s PREFU showed there is no room for complacency. Getting the books back in shape will require more spending restraint, not Chris Hipkins saying he’ll sort your gym membership out.

“ACT is campaigning to re-elect the coalition, while also making it go further and faster on the issues that matter – starting with balancing the books.”