Nicola Willis reveals the cover of the ‘no BS’ Growth Budget

Wednesday, 21 May 2025

Finance Minister Nicola Willis and Associate Finance Minister Chris Bishop at Bluestar printing in Petone where the Budget has been printed.

It’s her second Budget as finance minister, and Nicola Willis is sticking with tradition.

With less than 24 hours to go until the books are revealed, Willis and cabinet colleague Associate Finance Minister Chris Bishop on Wednesday morning beetled to Bluestar printing in Petone to watch the Government’s Budget cover being printed.

Last year Willis, copping flak for a “boring” Budget cover, said she wasn’t interested in “snazzy” pictures and wanted the numbers to speak for themselves.

“I think we've had six years of a government that wants to be judged by how snazzy its slogans were and how pretty its pictures were. We want to be judged by results,” Willis said then.

And history repeated itself today.

“I still haven’t gone for the glossy pictures and all of that stuff that the last lot went for because I’m a bit more grounded in reality,” Willis said, taking a dig at the former Labour government. “I don’t like BS, I like to be upfront and focus on the things that make a difference.”

It’s the ‘no BS Budget’, says Nicola Willis.

Willis, who refused to say ‘bullshit’ and would only say ‘BS’ (“I have too much respect for my grandmother”), says she has colloquially named the Budget as such, although its “formal, Christian” name was the Growth Budget.

Tomorrow the Government will be judged by the results, when it releases its Budget at 2pm.

With a billion less in operating allowance ‒ it will be $1.3 billion ‒ and high levels of debt, new initiatives have been largely funded from savings the Government has spent the last two years wresting from ministries.

“There’s no BS in here,” Willis said, while the printers were well under way. “No rainbows, or unicorns either.

“It’s a reality Budget that will deliver genuine hope for the future. It is a Budget that will secure our economic recovery, and that drives the growth that will create the jobs and better living standards that New Zealanders deserve.”

Willis said the Government would reveal tomorrow the exact figure it’s expected to save, having dumped current pay equity claims and changed the law to narrow the threshold under which new ones can be made. She agreed it was billions.

Public Service Association national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said there was a nervous wait in store for public service workers, and called it a “mean and nasty Budget”, criticising the savings that would be fed into tax cuts for landlords.

'New Zealanders can’t afford any further cuts to public services. Too much damage has already been done.'

While Willis said she wouldn’t be making changes to Superannuation, there have been hints at changes to KiwiSaver and on Wednesday Willis said the Government would deliver policies “that will ensure all New Zealanders can look forward to more financial security in their retirement and a greater ability to get a deposit for a first home”.

Willis also confirmed there would be commitments to Budget 2026.

Her Budget Day routine included eating the cookies her children made for her, at a morning tea also attended by the prime minister.

“And then at the end of the day the prime minister buys me a lovely bottle of whisky, and I have one of those.”

Willis clarified “one” was a dram, not a bottle.

The Budget is strictly under wraps until 2pm Thursday. However, the Government has made a series of pre-Budget announcements.

See what’s already been committed to here.