Barbara Edmonds says Govt’s ‘Investment Boost’ good for business

Tuesday, 27 May 2025

Labour Party finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said the Budget’s “Investment Boost” is overall good for businesses, while attacking the Government’s economic credibility half-way through its term.

“The question almost every Kiwi should ask themselves is this, do I feel better off today than I did 18 months ago?” Edmonds told a small business breakfast on Tuesday morning.

“On almost every economic indicator, the National Government has made things worse. They will blame everyone else for it or take credit for the work of the Reserve Bank. But the facts don't lie.

“Kiwis were told, the economy would be stronger, but it's slower. Kiwis were told the cost of living would come down, but prices are still going up.”

Edmonds spoke to an audience of 20 from the Porirua Chamber of Commerce at a breakfast event at the Supply Room restaurant and bar in her Mana electorate on Tuesday morning, days after the Government published its 2025 Budget.

The Budget ‒ which offered $6.6 billion in tax breaks to businesses that invest in new capital and changes to KiwiSaver, paid for by changes to the pay equity regime worth $12.6b in savings ‒ has been promoted by the Government as a “Growth Budget”.

Treasury forecasts in the Budget showed that an export-led economic recovery was under way, though the Government faces difficult years of fiscally tight Budgets to return to surplus.

But Edmonds was scathing of the coalition Government’s economic record, 18 months after it was elected.

“National cannot confirm if even a single family has received the full $250 [in tax relief] they were promised,” she told the audience.

She said the Mana electorate was particularly hard hit as the slowing construction industry was the second-largest employer.

In Porirua, she said there had been a 70.6% decline in non-residential building consents issued in the year to March 2025 (from historic highs, according to economic data firm Infometrics). As unemployment rose, the number of people on Jobseeker welfare support “in our hood” was up by 16%.

“Our local economy has declined by 2.2% over the year to March 2025, and that's compared to a 1.1% decline nationally,” Edmonds said.

Nonetheless, she said the “Investment Boost” tax credit scheme for businesses, which allows for accelerated depreciation on new assets, was “a good business initiative”.

Yet she said Labour had concerns about the risk this policy posed to the country’s finances, and that it would subsidise the oil and gas sector.

“However, I do take it back to ‒ it came at a cost.”

She said the Government was taking money from KiwiSaver, the Best Start payments for young families, emergency housing, and women workers to pay for its failed promises.

“Make no mistake about it, this will be remembered as the Budget that cut women's pay.

“They'll try to tell you that no one's pay has been cut. They'll say that women can still make claims. But when you take money that has been set aside for future pay rises and put it into something else, that is a cut.

“They're telling women that your contribution to the economy is less than a man's is.”

Edmonds offered no specific Labour policies in the speech, beyond high-level promises to focus on well-paid jobs, affordable homes, healthcare, local industry, and public schools.

Amid promoting the Budget in recent days, Finance Minister Nicola Willis has claimed Edmonds was being undermined by Labour leader Chris Hipkins, amid inconsistent messaging from Labour whether the party would stick with the current fiscal should that net core Crown debt should not exceed 50% of GDP.

Edmonds had told The Post before the Budget she agreed the current debt rule was appropriate. Hipkins appeared more equivocal in the days afterward, declining to commit to this.

Speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, Edmonds said Hipkins and her were on the “same page” and Labour was “working within those [fiscal] parameters now”, but there was another Budget to come before the party released its fiscal plan.

“The Government constantly saying that we're chopping [and] changing, that we're out of step with each other, again, is a distraction from what was a terrible Budget.”

The Government has also sought to tie Labour to the Green party alternative budget, claiming the Opposition would reach into Kiwis’ pockets to claim $88b in taxes ‒ part of the Green Party plan.

Labour has not said whether it supports or disagrees with the Green Party plan.

Edmonds, speaking to the audience, said she had not read the Green’s budget, published two weeks ago, as she was busy preparing for and scrutinising the Government’s Budget.

“At least they had a plan, I just didn’t read their plan.”