Latest news with #post-Budget
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Rally outside minister's meeting in Christchurch
By Joe Shaw of RNZ Protesters have rallied against the government's pay-equity legislation at a post-Budget business lunch attended by Finance Minister Nicola Willis in Christchurch. About 50 people chanted, waved banners and flags, and yelled through megaphones, as Willis entered the Addington Raceway event centre to speak to Canterbury business leaders today. Budget documents revealed the tightening of the pay-equity regime - passed under urgency in early May - would net the government $2.7 billion every year or $12.8 billion in total over the next four years. The changes mean workers now face a higher threshold to prove they are being underpaid due to sex discrimination. Thirty-three claims being negotiated will have to restart the process. Public Service Association delegate and library worker Sioniann Byrnes, who is on parental leave, said the changes were an attack on the working class. "The library assistant pay equity claim was one of the 33 that was basically stopped in it's tracks," she said. "I think what they've done is shafted a whole lot of people, who've done a lot of robust work to try and fix pay and equity that has been going on for a long time. "I think it is frankly disgusting." Byrnes hoped her four-month-old daughter, whom she was holding at the time, would not have to deal with the issue of pay equity in future. E tū delegate Keri Makiri was concerned about the effect of the legislation on partner, two taimaiti (children) and four mokopuna (grandchildren). "The changes are absolutely diabolical and rip the hearts out of lower-paid workers," he said. New Zealand Nurses Organisation delegate and nurse Maree Vincent was rallying for not just the pay-equity of nurses, but also for carers and support workers. "'We're back to square one. All we are asking is to be paid the same as our male counterparts in our jobs and the same as our nurses in our hospitals." But inside, the Finance Minister told the audience the savings were significant. "The government remains committed to the concept of pay-equity and, in fact, New Zealand continues to have a legislated, workable pay-equity regime for the raising of pay-equity claims and for the settlement of those claims. "The government itself continues to have funding put aside to settle claims we anticipate will come through in the future." Willis said the pay-equity regime had departed from addressing sex-based discrimination into issues that could be dealt with in normal bargaining rounds. "Without teaching you to suck eggs, pay-equity is different from equal pay. Equal pay is that you and you, if you do the same job, should be paid the same amount. "That concept is protected in law and must always be."
Otago Daily Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Otago Daily Times
Protesters out in force for Willis visit to Christchurch
By Joe Shaw of RNZ Protesters have rallied against the government's pay-equity legislation at a post-Budget business lunch attended by Finance Minister Nicola Willis in Christchurch. About 50 people chanted, waved banners and flags, and yelled through megaphones, as Willis entered the Addington Raceway event centre to speak to Canterbury business leaders today. Budget documents revealed the tightening of the pay-equity regime - passed under urgency in early May - would net the government $2.7 billion every year or $12.8 billion in total over the next four years. The changes mean workers now face a higher threshold to prove they are being underpaid due to sex discrimination. Thirty-three claims being negotiated will have to restart the process. Public Service Association delegate and library worker Sioniann Byrnes, who is on parental leave, said the changes were an attack on the working class. "The library assistant pay equity claim was one of the 33 that was basically stopped in it's tracks," she said. "I think what they've done is shafted a whole lot of people, who've done a lot of robust work to try and fix pay and equity that has been going on for a long time. "I think it is frankly disgusting." Byrnes hoped her four-month-old daughter, whom she was holding at the time, would not have to deal with the issue of pay equity in future. E tū delegate Keri Makiri was concerned about the effect of the legislation on partner, two taimaiti (children) and four mokopuna (grandchildren). "The changes are absolutely diabolical and rip the hearts out of lower-paid workers," he said. New Zealand Nurses Organisation delegate and nurse Maree Vincent was rallying for not just the pay-equity of nurses, but also for carers and support workers. "'We're back to square one. All we are asking is to be paid the same as our male counterparts in our jobs and the same as our nurses in our hospitals." But inside, the Finance Minister told the audience the savings were significant. "The government remains committed to the concept of pay-equity and, in fact, New Zealand continues to have a legislated, workable pay-equity regime for the raising of pay-equity claims and for the settlement of those claims. "The government itself continues to have funding put aside to settle claims we anticipate will come through in the future." Willis said the pay-equity regime had departed from addressing sex-based discrimination into issues that could be dealt with in normal bargaining rounds. "Without teaching you to suck eggs, pay-equity is different from equal pay. Equal pay is that you and you, if you do the same job, should be paid the same amount. "That concept is protected in law and must always be."
The Spinoff
25-05-2025
- Business
- The Spinoff
Budget 2025: A fiscal ‘time bomb' and a ‘disrespectful' blue dress
As the post-budget sales pitch ramps up, Investment Boost is put under the microscopic – while one fashion headline sparks an unlikely political sideshow, writes Catherine McGregor in today's extract from The Bulletin. The politics of regional neglect? The deluge of post-Budget commentary has hardly let up, and for two of New Zealand's largest and most politically sensitive regions – Auckland and the South Island – the reaction has been especially pointed. Business leaders in Auckland are cautiously optimistic, the Sunday Star-Times' Stewart Sowman-Lund reports (paywalled). Former National leader turned Business Chamber CEO Simon Bridges called it 'a real shot in the arm' while mayor Wayne Brown said he welcomed the investment in developing innovation, technology, and science and encouraging foreign investment. Greens' co-leader and Auckland Central MP Chlöe Swarbrick was less enthused. She said the budget would make the city 'demonstrably worse', citing the budget's lack of funding for climate resilience and addressing poverty. With little in the budget expressly for the South Island, mainlanders are still waiting for the government's words on regional empowerment to become action, independent economist Benje Patterson told The Press's Blayne Slabbert (paywalled). The government is 'continuing to kick the can down the road' on its fiscal promises to the South Island, he said. Patterson also questioned the long-term value of Investment Boost, an untargeted incentive likely to fund a lot of 'tax-efficient ute upgrades'. A good idea, with a gaping hole The Investment Boost tax break has emerged as one of the most debated measures of Budget 2025. On paper, it's simple: allow businesses to deduct 20% of new asset costs upfront to incentivise growth. But as Newsroom's Jonathan Milne reports, the scheme contains a potentially explosive flaw: there's no cap on either eligibility or cost. Unlike similar programmes overseas, New Zealand's version doesn't have a narrowly defined set of depreciable assets. Instead, Milne's colleague Marc Daalder writes, it offers 'massive, uncapped tax cuts for billion-dollar oil rigs, fast-tracked coal mines and glittering skyscrapers' – meaning just a few large-scale developments could send the cost spiralling well beyond Treasury's $6.6 billion estimate. The finance minister has said the policy will deliver the 'confidence injection' business needs – and Daalder agrees. 'It's hard to imagine a policy that could inject more confidence for the big end of town than an uncapped opportunity for everyone from multinationals to commercial property developers and [Shane] Jones' beloved mining sector.' Labour's fiscal headache While National and its partners defend the budget's restraint, Labour finds itself facing a challenge of a different kind: how to mount a credible alternative. As Thomas Coughlan writes in the Herald (paywalled), Labour's fiscal strategy appears muddled, with no clear consensus on spending, debt or taxation. The issue of pay equity funding illustrates the problem: Labour has criticised the government's decision to scrap the $13 billion contingency, but offered no roadmap to restore it. As Coughlan observes, if Labour plans to reinstate pay equity, it needs to explain how – especially when even its 2023 wealth tax wouldn't fully cover the cost. 'Who'd have thought that after a Budget as stern and severe as this, one that leaves so many victims, so many targets, that it might actually be Labour that comes off in the more vulnerable political position?' Chris Bishop to the Herald: 'be better' Among all the talk of budget winners and losers, one story has spiralled well beyond policy: Nicola Willis' dress. It all started when the Herald interviewed a local designer who said the finance minister's choice to wear a British label on Budget Day showed 'total disrespect' to the local fashion industry. The story attracted swift backlash, including from fellow National ministers. Chris Bishop called it 'sexist' and noted no one asked what he or other male MPs were wearing. Tying the article to Andrea Vance's controversial pay equity column, Bishop said 'we don't need gendered abuse of MPs by journalists like Stuff dished out two weeks ago, and we don't need articles commenting on what female MPs wear on Budget Day.' Willis herself dismissed the criticism, saying she wore a mix of overseas and local fashion brands and the media's focus should be on policy, not clothing.
IOL News
22-05-2025
- Business
- IOL News
Scopa chair calls for urgent action to address fiscal leakage in South Africa
Scopa chairperson Songezo Zibi says the work of releasing funds that are stuck in inefficiencies, incompetence, and poor planning should begin so that those funds can go towards investing in things that will fix the economy. Image: Timothy Bernard / Independent Newspapers The Standing Committee on Public Accounts chairperson, Songezo Zibi, said on Thursday there was a need to fix a whole lot of problems to get to a point where fiscal leakage was stopped and public finances began flowing to the right things. 'We have to do the work of releasing funds that are stuck in inefficiencies, incompetence, and poor planning so that those funds can go towards investing in things that will fix the economy,' Zibi said. He made the statement during the post-Budget briefing by chairpersons of finance cluster committees when they were asked about pressure they could make on the relevant portfolio committee and those involved regarding the review of fuel price structure. This is after the Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana proposed the increase of fuel levy, which is believed will hit the poor and inevitably lead to an increase in transport costs. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ In his response, Zibi noted that there were serious reductions made in the Budget that ranged from education, health, and infrastructure, among others, compared to allocations made in the March Budget. 'The question about VAT, fundamentally, was about how much money we should allocate for those problems. Do you want to give the government more or less money? The view was that the government should get less money – that is the impact. The question, really, is not about the fuel levy, but how much less you want to give the government and which of the things we must continue to cut,' Zibi said. He also said there must be short-term pain as part of resourcing the things the government must do. 'There must also be work on spending reviews,' said Zibi before noting that there was no accountability for those who waste public funds and that the government continued to overpay for goods and services. Mmusi Maimane, chairperson of the Standing Committee on Appropriations, said the process of reviewing the fuel price must be paramount. He also said his take on the Budget was that Godongwana was operating within a very constrained wiggle room, and the one cushion that could be relied on was that inflation was relatively low. 'I think we need to really review how we look at the fuel price, and therefore I will certainly raise the question with the Minister of Finance tomorrow,' Maimane said. He emphasised the importance of strengthening the currency and benefiting from the weakening dollar. 'We have to ensure the trade balance is stronger, and therefore, I can't stress enough the importance of attracting foreign direct investment. Part of that is to have a stronger currency to ensure, actually, your currency is not weak, so that purchasing power on oil is lower and will help with fuel price,' Maimane said. Joe Maswanganyi, Finance Committee chairperson, said citizens and the corporate sector have the responsibility to pay tax to fund public services. Maswanganyi said there should be no promotion of a situation where the public and corporate do not want to pay taxes. 'There is no state that can function without revenue; otherwise, if you run a state on populace, at some stage, that state will collapse. Taxation enables the government to fund essential public goods,' he said. However, Maswanganyi said they understood the implication of the fuel levy increase, but stated that it has been mitigated. 'The minister spoke about putting more money into transport, and in this regard, on the commuter rail system. It is highly subsided and is quite cheaper compared to other modes of transport in South Africa. The more you have commuter trains back on the railway lines, the more the poor, working class, and workers will use that mode of transport.'
Yahoo
03-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Businesses exploit EV tax trick to beat Reeves's National Insurance raid
Businesses are piling into electric vehicle (EV) salary sacrifice schemes in a bid to beat Rachel Reeves's National Insurance tax raid. Car providers have reported a surge of interest from companies in setting up company car benefits following an announcement by Ms Reeves, the Chancellor, of an increase to employers' National Insurance contributions (NICs). The NICs changes – criticised as a 'jobs tax' by business groups – will raise the levies companies pay on staff wages from 13.8pc to 15pc from April 1. Thom Groot, the chief executive of The Electric Car Scheme, said many firms were now seeking to minimise the blow by signing up employees to EV salary sacrifice schemes. National Insurance is only charged on the total after any salary sacrifice contributions are made. Mr Groot said: 'Pretty much overnight after the Budget, we saw a big uptick in interest. Previously there were a lot of businesses who were looking at it and telling us, 'This is interesting, but I'm really busy.' 'But now the increase in employee National Insurance contributions has sparked a lot of those businesses into action, because they're being challenged on costs and asking, 'How can we drive savings?'' The Electric Car Scheme manages salary sacrifice schemes on behalf of a string of organisations including Holland & Barrett, Hitachi, Time Out, Tuffnells and Millwall Football Club. The schemes see businesses lease electric cars on behalf of their employees, who then receive the vehicles as a benefit and pay for it out of their salaries – before tax is deducted. Mr Groot said a typical monthly salary contribution tends to be around £600, meaning that employers could reduce their NICs by some £90 per employee, per month. If 100 people signed up at a company, that would translate into savings of £108,000 on their annual tax bill. Mr Groot said inquiries to his company jumped by 20pc in the aftermath of the Budget, with car orders rising 22pc. A source at another car leasing provider said they had seen a similar post-Budget jump in interest. The increase comes as ministers are considering whether to relax government EV sales targets, which manufacturers have claimed are too tough. Companies can make 'considerable' NICs savings by offering EV salary sacrifice schemes, according to information published by accountancy giant BDO. However, some of this will be reduced by other changes to benefit-in-kind tax rules that are also coming into force. From April 1, companies must pay a tax on the car equivalent to 3pc of its list price – up from 2pc previously – and this will rise by one extra percentage point per year until April 2028. However, BDO said: 'The overall financial impact achievable from implementation is still positive.' Salary sacrifice schemes have been credited with boosting uptake of EVs in recent years, as many models remain too expensive for drivers to buy upfront. Mr Groot said the schemes gained in popularity following the pandemic because 'people were looking at it as a way to offer a nice benefit for their employees, because it was a very, very competitive recruitment market. Now the emphasis is much more on cost savings'. He added that over time, the profile of workers using the schemes had gradually shifted from being dominated by the highest paid to a broader mix of workers – though higher earners are still disproportionately represented. Across the companies who use The Electric Car Scheme, around 52pc of staff who lease vehicles are basic rate taxpayers versus 48pc on higher rates. (Across the national workforce, 13pc are higher-rate payers.) 'Obviously, the price is still relatively expensive,' Mr Groot added. 'But not everyone goes for a new car. 'What we've seen over the last year is the second hand car market in EVs has become much more active, and we're seeing a lot of take up of second-hand EVs through salary sacrifice.' A typical second-hand EV costs £400 to lease per month through salary sacrifice, he said. The Treasury was approached for comment. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more. Sign in to access your portfolio
