Opportunity will raise R&D funding, empower the
Commerce Commission to tackle uncompetitive sectors and
enable small business innovation.
Opportunity has
released its Breakthrough Economy policy — a reform
package designed to fund New Zealand’s innovators, stand
up to uncompetitive market sectors, and back small
businesses to take a generational leap
forward.
“Growth is slowing and wages are stagnating
because our economic settings haven’t changed in
decades,” says leader Qiulae Wong. “This is a long-term
plan to enable a new kind of economy – where breakthroughs,
new ideas and new business are the new normal.”
The
Breakthrough Economy policy rests on three
pillars:
• Build NZ’s innovation engine.
Lifting research & development spending to at
least 2% of GDP, introducing new technology investment tax
credits, doubling funding for proven accelerator programmes,
forgiving student loan interest for returning Kiwis, turning
polytechs into regional innovation hubs and developing a
cross-party population strategy.
• Stand up
for consumers. Giving the Commerce Commission the
legal power and funding to fight for Kiwi consumers,
including the power to break up duopolies through the High
Court.
• Power up small business.
Increasing funding for small business budgeting services,
speeding up access to the R&D tax credit, ensuring ACC
and the retail payment system are fair, and creating a new
legal structure – the Impact Company.
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“We have to
move on from locking out talent, locking up profit and
losing our most talented people off-shore,” says Wong.
“That requires certainty for investors and business
owners, and a long-term commitment to solving our
productivity challenge.”
The party projects that its
competition reforms will save Kiwi families $12 to $31 a
week by lowering prices in the supermarkets, banks and other
low-competition sectors.
“Besides placing an unfair
cost-of-living burden on Kiwi families, an unfair economy
can’t innovate” says Wong. “That’s why competition
reform via a strengthened Commerce Commission is a key
pillar of the Breakthrough Economy” says Wong.
The
party projects that the $1.33 billion per year package could
deliver up to 2% of additional annual GDP growth after 10
years – in line with comparable, high-growth small
economies like Singapore and Estonia.
Opportunity says
the Breakthrough Economy policy sits alongside its Abundant
Energy, Tax Reset and other policies as part of a wider plan
to build New Zealand’s ‘next economy’.
About Opportunity:
Opportunity was
founded in 2017 to address systemic barriers to fairness in
New Zealand through bold, evidence-based policy. The party
advocates for strengthening democracy, fairer tax systems,
affordable housing, climate action and investing in future
generations. For more information, visit www.opportunity.org.nz.
