Small Business Minister: A dedicated portfolio does not guarantee accountability
Governments of both sides often fall into a trap.
Whenever we decide something matters, they create a minister for it.
A Minister for Auckland, South Island, rural communities, hospitality, small business and manufacturing.
The problem is that once these portfolios exist, they become politically difficult to remove.
Abolishing one exposes the Government to attacks that they’ve stopped caring about the people, place or sectors.
The better test is whether anyone has clear responsibility for delivery.
The NZ Initiative has argued that New Zealand has a growing accountability problem. Its report on 30 years of MMP notes there are 81 ministerial portfolios spread across 28 ministers.
It calls for a leaner executive, stronger select committees and greater parliamentary scrutiny.
This is not necessarily an argument for smaller government. It is an argument for more effective government, with fewer overlapping responsibilities and clearer accountability.
Every ministerial portfolio comes with a hidden cost.
Each portfolio creates work for officials. There are briefings to prepare, stakeholder meetings to service, consultation documents to write and reports that often end up on shelves.
Some of that work improves decisions. A lot of it happens because the portfolio exists.
The biggest cost may not be money – it is attention.
Every hour ministers, MPs and officials spend servicing advocacy portfolios is time diverted from scrutinising legislation, testing unintended consequences or preparing for emerging issues.
Take the ministerial portfolio for small business and manufacturing.
I spend most of my working hours with business owners, most of them employing 50 or fewer staff. Across the political spectrum, few people would argue small business does not matter.
If this portfolio disappeared tomorrow, small business would not become less important.
Small business services would still be delivered through the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE). Officials would still work on small business policy.
Ministers responsible for economic growth and regional development would still be judged on whether businesses are growing, investment is flowing and prosperity is being felt across the regions.
The Minister for Small Business and Manufacturing currently sits outside Cabinet. Most of the portfolio’s value therefore sits in advocacy and influence across government.
While that is not nothing, advocacy is not the same as accountability.
Small business services already sit inside MBIE, which reports across 19 ministerial portfolios. Surely one of them can carry clear responsibility for small business outcomes.
This is not about any individual minister. It is about whether the structure makes sense.
As someone who advocates for small businesses and manufacturers every day, I would not judge the next government by whether it keeps a dedicated title. I would judge it by its policies, delivery and outcomes.
That same test should apply elsewhere.
Auckland matters. So does the South Island. So do rural communities and hospitality.
But if their interests cannot be properly handled through transport, health, infrastructure, local government, economic growth, regional development and other existing portfolios, the problem is not the absence of another title.
The problem is weak accountability inside the portfolios that already exist.
Creating a figurehead portfolio signals that something matters. Delivering results proves it.
If a government genuinely supports small business, hospitality, rural communities, Auckland or the South Island, the real test is how it prioritises those issues in budgets, policy settings and delivery.
That is where the accountability should sit.
The NZ Initiative is right to argue for stronger select committees and greater parliamentary scrutiny. Parliament’s time is limited and we should treat it as valuable.
I would happily trade some advocacy portfolios and token stakeholder workshops for MPs having more time to produce better legislation and scrutinise the decisions that shape outcomes.
New Zealand does not lack concern for important issues. It often lacks clear ownership of them.
If we keep treating every important issue as a reason to create another portfolio, we will keep falling into the same trap. More titles may signal concern, but they do not fix accountability.
Matt Cowley is the chief executive for the Tauranga Business Chamber.