Budget 2025 the ‘buy your ticket to Australia' Budget
Don't get me wrong, as a business leader, the ability to deduct a bit of extra tax on new asset purchases is welcome and it might accelerate some investments. But it's not going to move the needle. Even Treasury predicts it will only add 1% of GDP over the next 20 years. That's 0.05% of GDP a year. Literally a rounding error for Statistics New Zealand.
That's it? An extra 0.05% of GDP, a Waipawa's worth of economic output a year. That's the big plan we've been told to expect?
Mark me down as unimpressed.
Meanwhile, unemployment is taking a huge toll on our young people: 10.9% unemployment among 20-24-year-olds, 23.9% for 15-19-year-olds in the latest figures. Not because they're lazy and 'on the PlayStation' as Nicola Willis puts it. But because there aren't enough jobs.
Youth unemployment didn't spike by 50% in the past year and a half because young people suddenly got lazy, eh? It's because the economy has lost over 30,000 jobs in that time, and the youngsters (along with Māori and Pasifika) always get the short end of the stick when there's not enough jobs to go around.
Hassling young people who are stuck on the dole because there's no jobs won't suddenly get them into work. Forcing 19-year-olds who have lost their job to ask their parents to support them and cutting their dole off regardless of whether their parents do or not is just mean.
And if they do get a job? Well, better hope it's not in a female-dominated industry, eh? Because pay equity is out the window. $13b of payouts to underpaid workers, $300 a week – gone.
Oh, and your KiwiSaver contribution is going up, and Treasury expects the added employer contribution will ultimately come out of workers' pay, too. But the Government contribution, that's getting cut in half, which will mean tens of thousands less in your nest-egg when you retire.
Maybe rangatahi should get some more education, so they can get a higher-paying job? Ah, but tertiary tuition funding is being cut in the Budget, and fees are going up.
What about somewhere to live? Good luck. Money is being pulled out of house building and First Home loan assistance, and going into paying landlords in Auckland to convert their rentals over to social housing.
I don't buy this dumping on the younger generation that seems to be so popular with this Government and certain commentators. They're not lazy or spoiled. They're no worse than we were and, in many ways, they're better – smart, inquisitive, and healthily sceptical. The latest Budget predicts slower growth and rising youth unemployment. Photo / Marty Melville
But, I tell you what, they've got it harder than most of us had it. The Kiwi Dream that we used to all have a decent shot at achieving – a home of your own, a decent job paying enough for good quality of life – must seem light years away to today's 20-year-olds. Not a goal, just a joke.
If you're a young person, you've got to be asking yourself – 'what am I staying here for?'
Not for low wages and lack of an economic vision.
Not for the crumbling infrastructure and the underfunded health system.
Not for a Government that cares so little about the climate you'll have to live in that it's planning to invest in natural gas drilling.
No wonder our young people are leaving this country in record numbers. After this Budget, the planes to Aussie are going to be chocka with our country's future, seeking a better chance across the sea.
I'm all for international travel and OEs. I mean, I'm on my middle-age OE right now. But if my kids and my young whānau go overseas, I want them to go because they have built a great foundation in Aotearoa and, now, they want to see the rest of the world. And I want them to want to come back home after their travels.
I don't want them to leave because the Government has as good as packed their bags for them and told them there's no hope for them here if they stay.
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NZ Herald
37 minutes ago
- NZ Herald
Tāmaki Makaurau byelection: Labour's Peeni Henare hits back at Te Pāti Māori claim of ‘greedy' byelection contest
Kemp narrowly beat Henare in the 2023 general election, a result that Labour requested be recounted, which led to Kemp's lead growing slightly to 42 votes. Shortly after Te Pāti Māori last week announced former broadcaster Oriini Kaipara as its candidate aiming to succeed Kemp, Kiri Tamihere-Waititi – party media liaison, wife to co-leader Rawiri Waititi and daughter to Tamihere – wrote on social media how a vote for Henare was a 'wasted' vote and claimed it was 'greedy' of Labour to run an existing MP in the byelection. Kiri Tamihere-Waititi published her views on social media. Photo / Andrew Warner She encouraged voters to support Kaipara as it would mean two Tāmaki Makaurau-based Māori MPs were in Parliament. Tamihere-Waititi's strategy proved an effective one for Te Pāti Māori in 2023 when Labour secured the largest party vote share in the Māori seats while Te Pāti Māori candidates won six of the seven electorate contests. Henare, speaking from Parliament this morning, dismissed any claim Labour was being greedy. 'Every green seat in the House of Parliament is a contested seat, anybody who thinks a seat is going to be given to somebody is absolute folly,' he said. 'In the last election, I got over 10,000 votes. I owe it to them too to make sure that they're represented, and that's why I put my hand up.' He noted Labour's Georgie Dansey, a wahine Māori, would enter Parliament if he won the byelection. 'Any suggestion that I'm curbing a Māori voice in Parliament is absolute folly and those kinds of reckons don't help what should be a good contest between two good candidates.' Speaking to the Herald last week, Tamihere said Henare could risk leadership aspirations if he was unsuccessful. Henare, who held Tāmaki Makaurau for three terms from 2014, described Tamihere's jab as a 'bit rich' and referenced the former MP's failed attempts to win the seat in 2005 and 2020, as well as an unsuccessful Auckland mayoralty bid. Labour MP Peeni Henare speaking before select committee. Photo / Mark Mitchell Henare clarified he had 'huge respect' for Kaipara, despite alleged efforts from Tamihere to 'drag me into the trenches for an all-out, toe-to-toe fist fight'. Stating he would run a respectful campaign, Henare said he would be encouraging 'out-of-the-box thinking' to gain support as well as a stronger social media presence, which he admitted Labour could improve in the face of a formidable and established Te Pāti Māori online operation. Henare and Kaipara were the primary contenders. Vision New Zealand leader Hannah Tamaki would also contest the seat. National, Act and New Zealand First were not entering candidates. Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson, who has run for the seat three times, confirmed last week her party would not contest the byelection as it was not a 'responsible use of our resources at this time'. Tamihere had argued it would boost his party's support base but Labour's Māori caucus chair Willie Jackson believed support would go both ways. 'This is very much a 50-50 election. We're not over-confident at all, we respect Te Pāti Māori and the young movement out there, but we've got a long history with Labour.' He claimed no backroom deals had been reached between Labour and the Greens about the latter not standing a candidate. Jackson repeated Henare's assertion Labour would run a clean campaign, but also said he was up for a fight. 'If they want to have a fight, Te Pāti Māori, well, I'm up for it, there's no problems with that, but that's not how we're going to run this campaign, this is a respectful campaign.' Labour MP Willie Jackson wants a clean campaign but won't back down from a fight. Photo / Mark Mitchell Labour leader Chris Hipkins today confirmed Henare would not be given leave from his Parliament duties to spend more time campaigning in Auckland. '[Henare] still has his job, he still needs to fulfil his responsibilities as a Member of Parliament.' Hipkins maintained Labour would have a 'very, very active ground game' and believed Henare's experience in Parliament would benefit him in the byelection. Luxon yesterday repeated his criticism of Hipkins for not further challenging the 2023 Tāmaki Makaurau result, indicating he would have pursued an election petition, which goes beyond a recount. Hipkins today said Labour had been advised a petition was likely to have been unsuccessful, given Kemp's share of the vote increased after the recount. Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald's Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.
The Spinoff
38 minutes ago
- The Spinoff
Why Tāmaki Makaurau needs an urban Māori leader
With a byelection set for September 6, and Peeni Henare, Oriini Kaipara and Hannah Tamaki confirmed in the race, Tāmaki Makaurau needs a leader who understands what it means to be urban, disconnected and diasporic, argues Te Rina Ruka-Triponel. I've spent most of my life in Tāmaki Makaurau. I've lived overseas, moved between cities, and never quite had one tūrangawaewae to stand firm on – yet, Tāmaki has always been my home. But not in the way many understand. My experience as a Māori in this city has not been shaped by marae or iwi connections, at least not in the beginning, but by my relationship with Pacific communities who, in many ways, carried me when I felt disconnected from my own. I didn't grow up speaking te reo, like some of my Sāmoan and Tongan friends who were encouraged to speak only English – at least in public. For Pacific families, the church is like a marae, a fale or a meeting place. It's their tūrangawaewae away from home. A space for gathering, to keep language alive, for healing. It's where we mourn, celebrate and connect. Some rarely go back to their island homes because they're established here, and others don't know where they're from. While I've been on a reclamation journey for the last decade – now strongly connected to my hapū, my iwi, my whānau, even my fenua and village in Mo'orea – the story of the Pacific diaspora is one I deeply resonate with. I found belonging in those spaces when our own had been stripped from us. That's why I advocate for our Pacific communities, they healed a part of me my own community couldn't. Because, truthfully, Māori often participate in our own marginalisation. I come from a whānau shaped by colonisation, disconnection and assimilation – and I'm not alone. There are many of us out here. We are mokopuna of grandparents who were beaten for speaking te reo, forced off their whenua, and into urban centres like Tāmaki Makaurau. Some of us are reclaiming our reo, our tikanga, our names. These stories, though common, are still invisible in our leadership – and we are a huge demographic. Around 84% of Māori in Aotearoa live in urban areas, a figure that has remained consistent since at least the 2013 New Zealand census. Tāmaki Makaurau is home to the largest Māori population in the country, with nearly a quarter of all Māori (over 200,000 people) living in Auckland. That's a significant presence – yet urban Māori realities are still underrepresented in leadership, policy design and public narrative. There needs to be a voice that understands these realities – one that is actively pursuing the path to whakapapa too. This isn't a story of victimhood either – if anything, we are strong and resilient because of what we've endured. Many Māori whānau in Tāmaki are not te reo champions, we're not immersed in reo Māori every day. Many of us didn't grow up on our whenua or with a relationship to our marae. It's here that I urge Māori leadership to hold space for these complexities. For those of us who feel Māori in our wairua and bones – but who weren't raised with the traditional anchors of reo, marae and whenua. Now a byelection is upon us. The late Takutai Moana Natasha Kemp understood these realities. She was an unapologetically urban Māori wahine who, as chief executive of Manurewa Marae, turned the marae into a vital community clinic during the Covid‑19 lockdowns. She helped whānau impacted by job losses, distribution obstacles or vaccine hesitancy. Under her leadership, the marae administered around 65,000 Covid-19 vaccinations and provided food packs to support struggling households. She was also director of Hip Hop International NZ, managing the first Aotearoa crew to compete at the World Hip Hop Championships, celebrating Māori and Pacific cultural expression through dance. She worked with youth across South Auckland with a passion to ensure they would thrive. A servant-leader who proved that whakapapa and community service can take many forms – whether through the rhythms of hip hop, the outreach of a community clinic, or the embrace of a marae. Whoever follows Kemp must understand what it means to be a servant-leader in the context of this city. And they must carry the weight of representing Māori and Pacific communities whose lives are intertwined through shared histories of migration, struggle, and resilience. In political circles, I've often said: 'I don't resonate with the current leadership as an urban Māori.' And I'm usually met with: 'Well, that's not how politics works,' or 'It's not about seeing yourself in someone – it's about who can do the job.' That may be true in a western model. But as someone grounded in te ao Māori – and who's spent the last decade on a reclamation journey – I believe leadership is relational. And who better to lead Tāmaki Makaurau than someone who understands Tāmaki Makaurau? My hope is that Māori also extend their leadership to our Pacific whanaunga, our tuākana. We cannot prosper towards a Hawaiki hou without them. I certainly would not have come this far without them.
NZ Herald
an hour ago
- NZ Herald
David Seymour withdraws UN letter after talking to from Christopher Luxon
Luxon said the letter to the Government from the Special Rapporteur was a 'waste of time' and did not disagree with the content of Seymour's response. 'Winston Peters is our Minister of Foreign Affairs, he engages and handles our relationship with the United Nations,' Luxon said. 'He will have a comprehensive reply in due course,' Luxon said. Luxon said his talk with Seymour had 'made it clear that [he] expects Winston Peters to be the one who engages with the UN'. Luxon would not divulge what he had said to Seymour, only that the Government now had 'clarity about who is responsible for what'. He said it was simply a 'process point' that the person who replies to UN communications is Peters. Seymour said he wrote the letter as Minister for Regulation 'in response to ridiculous statements about the Regulatory Standards Bill'. 'I stand by the contents of the letter and my colleagues share the same concerns,' he said. 'However it turns out I was too efficient in my correspondence. One response should come from the Minister for Foreign Affairs on behalf of all Ministers,' Seymour said. 'Winston and I have fixed the problem. I'm going to withdraw my letter so that the Government can send one response, I expect that letter to make the same points,' he said. In the original letter, Barume said he was 'particularly concerned' with the Regulatory Standards Bill, which he said 'excludes Māori traditions [tikanga] and fails to uphold the principles of partnership, active protection, and self-protection guaranteed under the Treaty of Waitangi'. 'I am preoccupied that the bill threatens Māori-specific laws that address structural inequalities in matters relating to, for example, land, language and environmental stewardship, and because it seems to impose a monocultural legal standard, marginalising Māori as legal subjects without respecting their own governance frameworks'. Seymour hit back, writing in his capacity as the Minister for Regulation, saying he found the letter 'presumptive, condescending, and wholly misplaced'. 'As an indigenous New Zealander myself, I am deeply aggrieved by your audacity in presuming to speak on my behalf and that of my fellow Māori regarding legislation that aims solely at ensuring clarity, consistency, and accountability in regulatory processes.' Seymour said Barume's characterisation of the Regulatory Standards Bill's approach to tikanga was 'not only incorrect but offensive' because the bill 'neither undermines nor overrides' current Treaty settlements or 'statutory protections afforded to Māori".
