Trina Snow looks at what Parliament might have in store.

As is usually the case under MMP, it took a while for the exact shape of the next Government to become clear despite National’s record-setting election night result.

Once the special votes were counted, Prime Minister John Key was able to announce his new Cabinet, which includes both John Banks from Act and Peter Dunne of United Future. Three National MPs have also become new Ministers outside of Cabinet.

John Banks has been appointed the Minister for Small Business and we hope he will be an active advocate for stores and other small businesses which can often be overlooked by politicians and officials. He also has the new role of Minister for Regulatory Reform, which NARGON believes has potential to reduce bureaucracy and red tape. However, it is important that any changes address the issues of small businesses and not just the larger enterprises.

From an industry perspective, there are three areas of legislative change to watch for in 2012 and beyond. An important section of the National Party election manifesto was a series of further changes to employment law, particularly for young workers and around flexible working arrangements.

Continuing as the Minister for Labour, Kate Wilkinson is likely to introduce quite quickly legislation establishing a Starting Out Wage. This is critical because the Government now accepts that the abolition of the Youth Wage in 2008 has cost thousands of young people the chance to work. While this was evident to our industry and why NARGON opposed the move, this Government now accepts Department of Labour research which shows up to 9000 jobs disappeared for 16 and 17 year olds.

In its policy document, National says the Starting Out Wage will provide many young people with “an opportunity to gain skills, earn money, get the valuable work experience they need to compete in the open labour market and get work. It will also encourage employers to give a young worker a job, where they would have been unwilling to hire them on the Adult Minimum Wage.”

While the exact shape of the legislation has not been announced, the policy states the Starting Out Wage will be set at 80% of the minimum wage and will be available to 16 and 17 year olds in their first six months of work with a new employer, and 18 year olds coming directly off designated benefits and some young people in industry training. Stores should be mindful that until the necessary legislation actually comes into force they need to comply with the current laws.

The second new policy is to extend existing flexible working arrangements. Key proposals include allowing flexible working agreements without invoking a formal process, extending the right to request flexible work arrangements to all employees, removing the six-month period before an employee has the right to request a flexible working arrangement and removing the limits on the number of requests an employee can make for flexible working arrangements over a 12-month period. Stores will need to carefully manage their obligations under these expected changes.

One of the biggest changes this year will be the ban on tobacco displays which is scheduled to come into full force mid-2012 and which will have an impact on all stores selling tobacco products. The legislation passed last year, but attention will now focus on possible exemptions for certain stores and/or extensions to the implementation date.

The Government has signalled it is concerned about the potential impact on smaller stores and the Ministry of Health will be consulting with NARGON and other industry bodies to mitigate any risks. In the meantime, stores are advised to plan to be ready to remove tobacco from sight by the current deadline of 23 July 2012.

Parliament will likely pass the Alcohol Reform Bill at some point this year. While there may be further changes, it is likely that the right for small stores to sell beer and wine will be phased out progressively. It will certainly be near impossible to get new licences. This situation makes it even more important for all stores to ensure they fully comply with the Sale of Liquor Act and their licence requirements.