The flagship policies of both Prime Minister John Key and Labour Party leader David Shearer remained unpopular with small business owners, according to research commissioned yesterday by MYOB.
Both Mr Key and Mr Shearer delivered speeches which focused on their view of how New Zealand should move ahead.
While Mr Key had the luxury of making the changes through being in Government, Mr Shearer was left articulating his broad "vision" of what he would like to do if he became prime minister.
MYOB general manager Julian Smith said a key plan of business policy - simplifying provisional tax - was not addressed by either leader.
"Policy to support the small business sector must be a priority if New Zealand is to achieve the vision of a smarter and more competitive economy both parties are promoting."
Small business was the engineroom of New Zealand's economy.
Sole traders or employers of one to five people made up 90% of New Zealand businesses and employed 23% of the work force, he said.
With that in mind, it was good to see the speeches by Messrs Key and Shearer address some of the business sector's key concerns.
"David Shearer has identified small business owners and employees as a key constituency if he and Labour are to be successful. He will be pleased that a number of the ideas he has been talking about are rated highly by New Zealand's small businesses."
Mr Shearer's call for a "cleverer New Zealand economy" with a greater focus on research and development would go down well with the 66% of small businesses who had said they would vote for more investment in those areas, Mr Smith said.
Similarly, his plan to restrict foreign ownership of productive land was a vote winner with 59% of the 1000 businesses surveyed.
Small business would also be pleased to see Mr Shearer acknowledging the importance of education and skills training, as it reflected the critical requirement for skilled talent, Mr Smith said.
However, the decision to retain Labour's capital gains tax was a real stumbling block for his chances of winning over the small business vote. The tax was one of the least popular proposals among small business, 62% saying they would vote against the proposal.
"The Labour leader still has more to do, and more detail to provide on his economic policies, if he is to outstrip John Key, whose economic priorities are rated highly by New Zealand's small business," Mr Smith said.
In his speech, Mr Key announced the formation of a super ministry incorporating the ministries of Economic Development, Innovation and Science, Housing and Building and Labour.
He also announced further job cuts in the public service.
Mr Smith said pledges by Mr Key to cutting costs in the public service and reducing government expenditure as part of a plan to return the budget to surplus was rated highly by small business and 68% of respondents saying they would vote for it.
Importantly, the focus of the new super ministry on improving interactions with government and providing a one-stop online shop for business support was a particularly positive move for New Zealand's small business owners, Mr Smith said.
One area of concern for Mr Key should be that his flagship economic policy continued to be highly unpopular with small businesses.
Asset sales had been identified as a top priority for National's second term but 49% of New Zealand businesses said they would vote against the policy.
"Like Mr Shearer, Mr Key's vision for economic development proves to be broadly popular, yet neither leader's flagship policy rates highly among small businesses," Mr Smith said.
Council of Trade Unions secretary Peter Conway, said merging the Department of Labour into the new super ministry had major risks and multiple reasons for concern.
Half the population were in the workforce, but the Government planned to integrate the work of the department responsible for workers' employment conditions and rights into a new ministry tasked with providing a single dedicated "business-facing" focus.
The left-leaning New Zealand Manufacturing and Exporters Association praised Mr Shearer's commitment to remove tax harbours around capital gains and seek to support the "real economy" as something needed to balance the economy and reduce the current account deficit.
Chief executive John Walley said a better balanced tax system was one component of moving investment incentives towards productive activity and away from unproductive assets, which was a change New Zealand urgently needed.
