Latest news with #Budget2023
RNZ News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- RNZ News
Budget 2025: The teenagers feeling ignored by government's decisions
Rangatahi from Save the Children and Kelson Boys' High School at the Child Poverty Action Group Budget analysis. Photo: Supplied "Do not just invest in stats and numbers, invest in us." That is the message from a group of teenagers grappling with some of the decisions made by the government in this year's Budget. They came together along with child advocates, researchers and rangatahi to unpack the budget. with KiwiSaver, pay equity, employment and climate change all top of the discussion. Save the Children Generation Hope Youth ambassadors opened the post-Budget chat hosted by the Child Poverty Action Group in Tāmaki Makaurau with these words. "A budget is numbers, but numbers don't heal people, a budget is a promise but promises break without action, a budget is pointless without a plan. "We've heard the speeches we've seen the headlines roll in; the words roll in like tides the tides that never quite reach the shore." One of the youth ambassadors is 17-year-old Sonya. She was concerned about what she feels are important parts of daily life that were missing from the budget. "There was a lot about infrastructure and funding for big things, but not really the things that matter or the things that impact people on their daily lives. "Kids that go to school, what are we going to do about buses? What are we going to do about traffic? What are we going to do about families and school lunches?" One of the big changes affecting rangatahi is the tightening of the job seeker and emergency benefits. 18 and 19-year-olds on those will now have them means tested against their parents' incomes. Year 12 students at Kelston Boys' High School Uelese and Nikolao are concerned about this. "Do they know, especially in Polynesian households like our parents, have their own struggles, relying on them for the funding will put more stress and you know, more troubles on our parents," said Uelese. "Yeah, I think it all goes back to the purpose of the government itself to provide positive outcomes for the general public, whether or not you have stable parents, I feel like everybody deserves what they're promised," Nikolao said. The issue was of particular relevance for Uelese - whose mother has been impacted by the pay equity reform. Year 12 Kelston Boys' High School student Uelese speaks at the event. Photo: Supplied While its overhaul will save the government $2.7 billion a year. The changes mean workers now face a higher threshold to prove they are underpaid due to sex discrimination. Uelese is worried about how it will affect his mum and dedicated his opening speech to her. "If my mom can't get ahead, how am I supposed to? "This year's budget was meant to be about growth, but for so many families, especially those led by women, it feels more like being told to grow something from dry soil. "You can't cut down the people who carry the load and expect the next generation to rise. "This budget forgets the people who hold our communities and our children together, women, especially mothers." Then there is KiwiSaver. From July, 16 and 17-year-olds are eligible to get the government contribution and requirements for employers to match their deposits will kick in next year. But the minimum contribution will go up from three percent of wages to four percent over the next three years. The amount the government is contributing is being halved to a maximum of $261 a year. The government said the increase in the default amount could leave KiwiSaver members with more than $100,000 in retirement. But the Labour Party claims not everybody will benefit, especially younger people. It claims the changes could mean an 18-year-old ends up with $66,000 less for their retirement. Uelese and Nikolao are disappointed with the change. "You know, finance is everything it would be good to, like, have that support that they've sort of halved. "I mean, it's still there, but is half really enough to start something in, in this ever growing society," said Uelese. The students also said there is one big thing missing in the budget, addressing climate change. Instead, the government has set aside $200 million to invest in fossil fuel development at gas fields, reduce climate finance to the pacific and clawed back funds for government agencies working on ways to save energy. Uelese said it was worrying. "We're really educated on climate change and we know that it's like one of the biggest issues, if not the biggest issue that we're facing right now. "We actually need to get our butts up and start moving." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
22-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Rabbits, switch-ups and highway robbery: Politicians, economists react to Budget 25
Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon address the media. Photo: RNZ / REECE BAKER Budget Day is a bit of a whirlwind . Opposition politicians, journalists and economists have just three-and-a-half hours to pore over the books, before presenting reports and analysis on what's on offer, what it means to people and, of course, come up with a hot take or two. The government found $2.7 billion a year through its changes to pay equity, cut its own contributions to KiwiSaver, told 18 and 19 year olds it would no longer pay them to sit on the couch and introduced a new Investment Boost tax incentive, which is tipped to increase New Zealand's GDP by 1 percent over the next 20 years. It was dubbed the 'Growth Budget' by the government , although the finance minister was fond of calling it the 'No BS Budget'. Economists and MPs had their own nicknames and thoughts to share. Bagrie Economics managing director Cameron Bagrie called it the 'Rabbit Budget', as the pay equity changes allowed the government to pull the rabbit out of the hat and generate savings. "Looking forward, we need a few more rabbits to pull out of a few more hats in the 2026 and 2027 Budgets, because we're still a long way away from returning to surplus." The books are not expected to return to surplus until 2029 and, even then, it will be a modest surplus of $200 million. Bagrie said New Zealand still had not seen the hard yards. "The savings are all backloaded into 2027, 2028 and 2029, and those savings to be delivered are going to require that we need tight expenditure control in the 2026, 2027 and 2028 Budgets. We know that spending pressures, including the funding of the defence force, are going to be pretty intense." Council of Trade Unions economist Craig Renney, who is also on Labour's policy council, said it was a 'Highway Robbery Budget' with the changes to pay equity. The Budget pledged to return to a surplus by 2029. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone "It's not a Budget that's delivering for working people and it doesn't appear to be a Budget with working people in mind," he said. "We're taking money straight out of the pockets of low-income workers. "We're taking benefits of 18-19 year olds, we're taking money from the education budget. We're taking money of Vote Māori Development, Vote Pacific Peoples and we're spending it on defence." On the KiwiSaver changes, Renney wanted assurances that employers would not put pressure on low income workers to deliberately take the 3 percent level, so their own costs did not go up. He praised the Investment Boost scheme, saying New Zealand was "way behind" in capital investment and the state had a big role to play. Baucher Consulting tax expert Terry Baucher was also a fan of the scheme, saying it was more generous than many predicted. He was less impressed with what was in the Budget for low-income families. "The government has increased the Working for Families threshhold to $44,900, but that's still below what someone on minimum wage would earn annually and it's $10,000 lower than it should be, if it had been increased in line with inflation since June 2018," he said. "Arguably, you could say that the burden for that Investment Boost is being paid by low-income workers and I don't agree with that. It's a disappointment in that regard." He said New Zealand faced a "demographic crunch", and there was not enough in the Budget to encourage families to work and raise their children in New Zealand. "We're taking money from our younger working people to give to older, richer property-owning people and long-term, in my view, that's not a recipe for a growth economy." Baucher said he understood why the government was means-testing KiwiSaver at higher levels, although did not support reducing the government contributions overall. Inequality reseacher Max Rashbrooke said the KiwiSaver changes were mean-spirited . "It is the state increasingly saying, 'If you're going to save, you're on your own. We're putting the burden on you to save out of your pay and we're putting the burden on your employer, rather than collectively, the state, trying to ensure that people are saving well for their retirement'." Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said it was the 'Switch-up Budget' as the government tried to spend more, while cutting back. "There are some big trade-offs that the government has had to make in Budget 2025 and I think, definitely for some groups, they'll be saying that's probably the wrong trade-off," he said. Olsen was "fairly relaxed" on the KiwiSaver changes and did not believe the current government contribution rate stimulated a huge amount of further investment that otherwise would not happen. "I don't think it'll shift the dial in terms of more or less investment from Kiwis by getting rid of that government contribution, but by increasing both the employer and employee contribution rates, that will stimulate more savings over time and I think that's positive." He was also onboard with cutting the government contribution rate entirely for those earning more than $180,000, saying the government needed to get its books in order and it did not need to give those earning good money that much support. New Zealand Initiative chief economist Eric Crampton said the government was making slow progress towards the smaller structural deficit in 2029 and needed sort it before the demographic changes really started to bite in the 2030s. "At some point, we have to wonder about the fiscal responsibility provisions in the Public Finance Act matter, because those effectively say you should not be running structural deficits for a decade, and we will have been running structural deficits for a decade. The ones during Covid were excusable - now, not so much." Crampton agreed that greater means-testing and targeted assistance to those in need made sense. "[It] can help towards fiscal consolidation," he said. "I don't need to be getting a subsidy towards my KiwiSaver. "It's better to target these sorts of things. Similarly, a bit tighter targeting in Working for Families can make a lot of sense. "It's good that they are stopping the inflation indexing of repayment threshholds for student loans. It would be nice if they took a few other measures." He pointed to re-instating interest on student loans as a measure that the government could take, while at the same time, increasing scholarships that are means-tested. Labour leader Chris Hipkins committed to reversing pay equity changes. Photo: VNP/Louis Collins Fresh from delivering their speeches to the House, a rolling maul of MPs from government and opposition came across Parliament's tiles to take questions. First up was Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who continued to denounce the pay equity changes , particularly now there was a number put on them. He committed to reversing the changes, should Labour return to the government benches, but couldn't be nailed down on the exact amount. Primarily, that was because he was unsure how the government had arrived at its figures. "They still haven't released their calculations on how they arrived at the savings they've delivered today, so I can't give you numbers," he said. "I can give you the principle, which is the principle is very clear for us. We don't believe that women should be paid less than men." He also said the Working for Families changes were "a measly amount, won't even pay for a block of butter" and the government cutting its KiwiSaver contributions "raided the future retirement savings" of New Zealanders. "I think most Kiwi families will be feeling that any advantage they got from tax cuts last year has been well and truly absorbed by increased costs in other areas," Hipkins said. "Their power bills are still going up, their rents are still going up. "Prices of food are still going up and they're finding other forms of government support are now being cut, like Working for Families, BestStart, KiwiSaver, and so on." Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Hipkins "has flip-flopped all over the place" and questioned how he would pay for reinstating pay equity as it had been. "Is he going to tax for it or is he going to borrow for it, if he wants to unroll all those changes?" Luxon said it was a "balanced Budget", which was focused on growth, and supporting people with the cost of living and on frontline services. Meanwhile, Winston Peters said he was proud with the SuperGold rates relief, and money for railways and defence . "Everybody's going to make that statement, they're proud of this and proud of that," he said. "Most of them will say they're proud of their portfolio, but I suppose the fact is we could have made a big mistake and done what I've seen in the past. "We have some revolutionary Budget we pay for for the next 15 years and I've seen a couple of those in my time." He hinted, over the next few months, New Zealanders would see other changes that would assured "a better economic outcome", thanks to his party's influence, although stayed coy on what those were. ACT leader David Seymour said "the numbers speak for themselves", as a result of Brooke van Velden's pay equity changes. He also said the increased funding for private school subsidies would make things "vaguely fair" and that he agreed to the Incentive Boost scheme, once he saw evidence it would be effective. "If you're going to give any kind of target a tax break, then acquiring capital equipment and goods is probably the most powerful thing you can do, if you just want to see increased capital intensity." The Green Party came out swinging, with co-leader Marama Davidson nicknaming the Budget the "no-ambition Budget, it's the child-poverty Budget, it's the we-don't-care-about-women Budget, it's the 'we-don't-care-about-rangatahi Budget, it's the we-don't-care-about-disabled-people, we-don't-care-about-Māori, we-don't-care-about-Pasifika". "Who do we care about? Wealthy and fossil fuel companies." Chlöe Swarbrick contined the government investment in gasfields. Photo: RNZ Davidson said the JobSeeker changes for 18-19 year olds was the government saying "with their full hearts, their full chests, they are really happy to be cruel and mean to people who are already having a hard time". Chlöe Swarbrick said the $200m towards co-investment in new gasfields was potentially a breach of the UK and EU free trade agreements . Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the KiwiSaver changes would ensure the scheme was sustainable into the future, insisting it struck the right balance. "New Zealand faces rising costs from superannuation from an ageing population and we need to make sure that we have our house in order." She said officials were unable to advise on how many people would opt down to the current 3 percent rate, as it involved making guesses on people's behaviour. "That is something we'll have to see in due course. I expect there will be many New Zealanders who, until they are feeling more financially secure, may not increase their contributions. "I think many New Zealanders will, because the default will be that you instantly go to that higher rate and people will have to think very carefully about whether they want to save less." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
21-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Poll shows NZers want govt to spend more on public services
economy politics 8:10 am today Ahead of Thursday's Budget, a new poll shows most New Zealanders want the government to spend more on public services, not less. 'Better Taxes for a Better Future' campaign spokesperson Glenn Barclay spoke to Ingrid Hipkiss.
RNZ News
18-05-2025
- Health
- RNZ News
Watch: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon makes pre-Budget health annoucnement
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Health Minister Simeon Brown are making a pre-Budget health announcement. It comes ahead of Thursday's Budget, as the health system groans under the strain of striking doctors, cuts to after-hours services and long wait times for elective surgeries.. They are expected to speak shortly after 1pm. Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
12-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Watch live: Finance Minister Nicola Willis gives pre-Budget speech
Nicola Willis is expected to reveal more details about next week's Budget in a speech in Wellington. The Finance Minister is speaking at investment platform Sharesies' offices in the capital on Tuesday. We'll be livestreaming the speech from about 10.30am, at the top of this page . Prime Minister Christopher Luxon last week announced there would be a boost to capital spending in the Budget , but Willis has signalled spending will be tight and that there will be no "lolly-scramble". Some experts have warned cuts to government's operating allowance might slow economic recovery. More to come...
