OM DENNE EPISODE
With hosts David Altena & Rob Bull | Guest: Qiulae Wong, Leader, The Opportunity Party
New Zealand has been unable to meaningfully lift productivity for 40+ years, despite inquiries, restructures and reforms. Qiulae Wong — leader of The Opportunity Party, with a career in sustainable and ethical business including the B Corp movement — joins David and Rob to test her party's policies against one simple question: not whether they sound good, but whether they'd genuinely help SME owners build capability, capacity and confidence.
In this episode:
- What "radically centrist" actually means, and why Qiulae argues the left-right divide is holding New Zealand back
- The B Corp philosophy: putting social and environmental impact on equal footing with profit — and what that looks like inside a small business
- The tax reset policy explained in plain terms — and an honest admission that some SME owners could be worse off under it
- The Breakthrough Economy policy: widening access to R&D tax credits and smaller, faster grants so the innovation pipeline isn't just for big business
- Rob's pushback: R&D policy is only useful if SMEs have the time and capability to act on it in the first place
- Closing test for listeners: will this policy actually make it easier to build a capable, resilient small business — not just whether it polls well
Key quote: "We simply need to enact the playbook that [other OECD countries] have done over the last couple of decades." — Qiulae Wong
Book recommendation: Qiulae's pick for SME leaders — Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia
🔗 The Opportunity Party: www.opportunity.org.nz📊 Benchmark your own business with PerformIQ: www.thebettersmb.com/nz-manufacturer-signup/🌐 The Better SMB: www.thebettersmb.com🎙️ The Better SMB Podcast: open.spotify.com/show/0VmzaRqeU5g94kzfPRKQlq
Proudly sponsored by Setseed — www.setseed.com
#BetterSMB #NZPolitics #SMBPolicy #Productivity #NZBusiness
