Welcome to my June Newsletter.
The past few weeks at Parliament have been focused on Budget 2025, which reflects the Government's strong commitment to economic growth, fiscal discipline, and targeted investment in health, education, law and order, and infrastructure.
To support business growth, the new Investment Boost will allow businesses to instantly deduct 20% of new asset depreciation costs from their taxable income (on top of normal deprecation). This will be welcome news for our tradies, farmers, manufacturers and producers – or anybody who invests in maintaining and upgrading their plant and equipment! Infrastructure development is also being streamlined through reforms that attract private and foreign investment, led by a new central agency, Invest New Zealand.
Education is a major focus of this year’s Budget, with the largest investment in learning support in a generation. Every primary school in New Zealand will have a dedicated Learning Support Coordinator to provide more tailored assistance to students with additional needs. Nearly $100 million is being invested to lift maths achievement through tutoring and targeted teaching, while $140 million will go toward improving school attendance through strengthened support services. Financial education will be introduced in all schools to better prepare young Kiwis for life after school, and $39.9 million is being invested over four years to develop and distribute hands-on science kits to schools nationwide. To make it easier for our hardworking teachers to stay in the profession, the Government is also covering teacher registration fees.
Health continues to be a top priority, with a record $7 billion funding increase for our skilled workforce in our communities, hospitals, and other care settings, bringing total health spending to $32.7 billion in 2025/26. This includes a $5.5 billion boost to strengthen access to care, with $1 billion allocated to Pharmac to fund life-saving medicines like new cancer treatments. Budget 2025 also includes $447 million to expand access to primary care, including more locally trained doctors and nurses, and new 24/7 digital GP services to help people access medical advice and prescriptions from home. An additional $91 million will support longer 12-month prescriptions, helping to reduce unnecessary repeat visits to the GP and pharmacy.
Locally, Timaru will benefit from a new daytime urgent care service, part of a national $164 million investment to ensure that 98% of New Zealanders can access urgent or after-hours care within one hour of home. Across the country, funding will support 21,000 additional planned care treatments, 31,000 additional cancer treatments, over 230,000 more general practice encounters, and tens of thousands of extra emergency department visits, aged care bed nights, and inpatient admissions. This is backed by over $1 billion in new capital investment to modernise hospitals and health infrastructure. We’re also expanding mental health crisis response teams, improving transfers from hospitals to aged care, and increasing support for the Health and Disability Commissioner to strengthen care standards.
In law and order, we’re backing Police with more frontline staff, funding 580 new Corrections officers, and expanding prison capacity to address serious and repeat offending making our communities safer.
Defence is also receiving a significant funding increase, with an additional $9 billion over four years as the Government works toward its goal of Defence spending reaching 2% of GDP within eight years. This will strengthen New Zealand’s military capability and deepen international partnerships.
To support everyday Kiwis, the Government is rolling out a range of practical initiatives. These include the shift to 12-month prescriptions, saving people both time and money, and support for 66,000 SuperGold Card holders to help with local rates payments. KiwiSaver settings are also being updated to improve retirement outcomes. Social investment is a key feature of the Budget, with a new $190 million Social Investment Fund using data-driven tools to target support where it is most needed. This fund is part of a broader commitment to deliver wraparound services that make a real difference in the lives of vulnerable New Zealanders.
Budget 2025 is about delivering better outcomes in the areas that matter most, a stronger healthcare sector, a better education system, economic opportunity, and meaningful support for hardworking New Zealanders and their families.
Recent Key Announcements
Investment Boost: Tax Incentive to Lift Growth: Budget 2025 launches Investment Boost, a major new tax incentive to encourage businesses to invest, grow the economy, and lift wages (Beehive PR)
Urgent care boost for Dunedin, Invercargill, and Timaru: South Island communities will have better access to urgent and after-hours healthcare as part of a nationwide investment (Beehive PR)
Largest boost to Learning Support in a generation: The Government is delivering the most significant investment in learning support in a generation to better support Kiwi kids to thrive at school (Beehive PR)
Extra hydro generation secured to support energy security: Changes to the Operating Guidelines for how the lake levels are managed to boost New Zealand’s hydro generation and energy security (Beehive PR)
A responsible Budget to secure NZ’s future: Budget 2025 secures New Zealand’s economic and fiscal recovery and advances reforms to make New Zealanders better off in future (Beehive PR)
Final recipient announced as round two of Innovation Fund opens: The Government’s Mental Health and Addiction Community Sector Innovation Fund is open for applications (Beehive PR)
Investing more to stop illicit drugs entering NZ: Budget 2025 will do more to strengthen our borders, prevent drug smuggling and fight organised crime (Beehive PR)
Extra maths help for students who need it: The Government is turbocharging student achievement in maths by ensuring extra help is available at every stage of primary and intermediate schooling (Beehive PR)
Wapiti Herd of Special Interest process begins: The Government to formally consider designating wapiti deer as a Herd of Special Interest (HOSI) in Fiordland National Park (Beehive PR)
KiwiSaver changes to encourage savings: Budget 2025 improves KiwiSaver to encourage Kiwis to save more for their first home and retirement, while making the scheme more fiscally sustainable (Beehive PR)
$577 million to support film and TV production: The Government is providing certainty to New Zealand’s film industry by providing the funding needed to sustain the International Screen Production Rebate (Beehive PR)
Building consent system productivity on the rise: Processing delays for building consents and code compliance certificates have dropped since the Government began publicly releasing council performance data (Beehive PR)
If you are interested here is a link to read the PR Releases relating to my Ministerial portfolios.
Upcoming events
12 Jun Papakura SuperBlues event
13 Jun Napier SuperBlues event
16-19 Jun Scrutiny Week at Parliament, Wellington
27 Jun Lunch Club in Ashburton, Cameron Brewer MP for Upper Harbour guest speaker
1-2 Jul Youth Parliament, Wellington
Visit the following sites for more information on events happening in our region:
Highlights
I was fortunate to spend King’s Birthday weekend hunting Tahr, with DOC and the NZ Tahr Foundation, in the hills of Rangitata. DOC’s tahr programme was established to provide a central and concerted approach to tahr management. The NZ Tahr Foundation works to coordinate and improving tahr management, and biodiversity conservation outcomes through hunting. I really appreciate these trips to experience first-hand our country’s world class hunting spots and majestic landscapes and learn from these organisations the work being done to manage and preserve our great outdoors for future generations.

Photo: Tahr Hunting in the Rangitata
It was an honour to attend the Zonta Club of Ashburton's Changeover Dinner as the guest speaker recently. Thank you to the members for the warm welcome and the opportunity to share my personal journey. Zonta’s work both here in Mid Canterbury and globally makes a meaningful difference in the lives of women and girls, and it was inspiring to spend the evening with such a passionate and community minded group of volunteers.
I’d like to knowledge and congratulate the incredible King’s Birthday Honours recipients from the Rangitata electorate. These individuals do remarkable work and have been celebrated and rightly awarded King’s Birthday Honours for the service they have given to our community over many years. They are Pauline-Jean Luyten MNZM, Gary Rooney MNZM, Sina Latu KSM, Clive Power ONZM, and Charles Ross MNZM. Thank you for your commitment and service to our community, making it a better place to live.
Congratulations to the Timaru District Council for their outstanding management of the Seadown water supply, which has been crowned the best tasting tap water in New Zealand at the 2025 IXOM National Water Taste Test. This is a great example of how local communities are best placed to manage their own water resources. Under this Government, we repealed the Three Waters legislation, ensuring that local water facilities and resources remain in the hands of the communities who use and care for them.
It was a pleasure to be invited to the Timaru Squadron for the Air Training Corps and Timaru Navy Cadets and visit their base and chat with the dedicated group leaders and youth members. These young people put in an impressive amount of effort and discipline, and it was great to see their commitment in action. I was grateful to be gifted a set of their SQN patches and to witness some of the cadets being promoted in recognition of their hard work and leadership.

Photo: Timaru Squadron members
It was a pleasure to attend the South Canterbury Sport and Recreation Awards in Timaru recently. A big thank you to Shaun and the team at Sport South Canterbury for hosting such a fantastic evening celebrating local talent and dedication. Congratulations to all the winners and nominees, you continue to inspire our community with your hard work and achievements. And of course, one of the highlights was Jorja Miller taking out the Sportsperson of the Year, well deserved after the year she’s had at the top of her game!
Recent interviews
Contact the team
Any issues or feedback to do with my portfolio areas, contact my ministerial team at j.meager@ministers.govt.nz
If you need help with a local electorate issue (Mid Canterbury or South Canterbury) contact my electorate offices at james.meagerMP@parliament.govt.nz
Call: South Canterbury 03 683 2009 or Mid Canterbury 03 307 1729.
Drop in: Monday to Friday 10am - 4pm.