Budget 2026: What could securing NZ’s economic future involve, beyond fiscal responsibility?
Wednesday, 27 May 2026
ANALYSIS: If the Budget’s branding is to be taken literally, the Government has set itself the ambitious task of “Securing New Zealand’s Future” on Thursday.
It would argue that cutting public expenditure and charting a course back to surplus put in place some of the necessary foundations to achieve that goal, from an economic perspective at least.
But what of something more active?
Whether it is ripe for this year’s Budget is anyone’s guess, but one of the ideas Finance Minister Nicola Willis has acknowledged exploring is putting in place something similar to Australia’s Business Growth Fund.
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It is designed to plug a perceived gap in Australia’s capital market by providing minority government equity investments in growth businesses.
So far the Australian government has bought minority stakes in 14 Australian firms, through capital injections of between A$5m (NZ$6m) and A$15m.
Recipients of the investments include a company that makes blinds and curtains, an ewaste recycler and a manufacturer of industrial batteries.
The OECD suggested mirroring the Australian initiative when it released its wide-ranging report on the New Zealand economy earlier this month, noting the idea had been explored here in 2022 but later sidelined.
It suggested the goal of a new fund should be to make investments of between $5m and $50m in target businesses.
Other OECD countries, including Canada, Ireland and the UK had set up government-funded Business Growth Funds that also partnered with the private sector, its report noted, arguing they provided “a proven model”.
Willis has previously expressed scepticism about governments attempting to “pick winners”.
However, commenting on the OECD’s recommendations, she said she had spoken with Australian federal treasurer Jim Chalmers about the Australian fund.
“This is something that we’re continuing to look at on our work programme,” she said.
The meeting with Chalmers took place on April 17 and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) described the topic for discussion as “New Zealand potentially joining the Australian Business Growth Fund”.
A briefing document prepared for her by MBIE last year noted that consultant Deloitte had estimated there were between 500 and 1200 “more traditional” small businesses with revenues of between $1m and $10m that “could not access growth capital”.
“In 2023, it was proposed that a Business Growth Fund could help fill this gap,” officials advised. “This concept has found success in other jurisdictions like the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.
“The previous government committed $100m in equal partnership with the four major banks as co-shareholders to establish the New Zealand Business Growth Fund. However, due to competing priorities, discussions with the banks were not progressed through to implementation, and the committed funds were therefore reallocated.”
If the coalition Government was to revive the idea, one way to pay for it might be to also copy Australia by introducing something similar to its major bank levy on the big four banks.
That is another idea Willis is known to have explored, and one which seems to have surprisingly strong support from National and ACT voters, according to a poll conducted by Talbot Mills that was released on Monday.
To suggest there was any plan to do the two any time soon would be heaping speculation on speculation. But, clearly, there have been conversations.