Dana Kirkpatrick - Update

What a busy few weeks it has been getting the budget through its first debates and setting some legislation to enable parts of the budget to deliver for New Zealanders.

Last week in recess I spent a lot of time on the road visiting many of the towns in the electorate holding community clinics - where people can drop in and catch up - there were many and varied issues and we came away with a long list of actions.

Thanks to all those who came along to visit us at Gisborne, Wainui, Opotiki, Edgecumbe, Kawerau, Paengaroa, Pongakawa, Pukehina, Matata and Whakatane. It was a great week meeting constituents and working with them on their issues.

There has been a lot in the media about the budget but sometimes it gets a bit lost. I thought it worth sending a few bullet points to keep you across important aspects of the 2025 budget.

See below for info on Education, Health and the Primary Sector.

The Budget 2025 is about growing the economy to help Kiwis get ahead.
After a tough few years NZ’s economy is starting to recover thanks to National’s careful management.
Inflation and interest rates are down, wages are growing faster than inflation and growth is expected to average 2.7% per year creating 240,000 jobs over the next four years.
We cannot take that recovery for granted, which is why we’ve delivered a responsible Budget firmly focused on growing the economy to help Kiwis get ahead.
We’re investing Kiwis’ hard-earned taxes where they will have the most impact, including delivering Investment Boost to encourage businesses to invest and lift wages, expanding frontline services, like more learning support, new schools and classrooms, $1 billion of hospital upgrades, new urgent healthcare and more support for Police, and targeted help for Kiwis with the cost of living.

How we’re growing the economy to help Kiwis get ahead

Stopping wasteful spending to continue bringing down interest rates and inflation.
Introducing Investment Boost – a new tax incentive to help businesses with the costs of new capital assets, to encourage them to invest, grow and lift wages.
Increasing KiwiSaver balances to boost savings by phasing in an increase in the employer and employee contributions.
Making major investments in new infrastructure such as roads, schools and hospitals.
Growing tourism.
Supporting tech startups and the film sector.

 How we’re helping Kiwis with the cost of living

Stopping wasteful spending to bring down interest rates and inflation.
Increasing rates rebates for seniors and extending it to 66,000 more SuperGold Card holders.
Targeted Working for Families support to deliver an average $14 extra a fortnight to 142,000 low- to middle-income families.
Extending prescription lengths to 12-months, meaning less time and money spent visiting the doctor.

How we’re managing the economy responsibly and getting the books back in shape

Smaller operating allowance – net new spending of $1.3 billion per year, down from an expected $2.4 billion
Returning the books to surplus in 2028/29
Finding $21billion of savings to reinvest in priority areas – including by targeting BestStart payments to families earning under $97,000 and requiring a parental assistance test before an 18- or 19-year-old can go on a Jobseeker benefit.
Getting debt on a downward trajectory after it increased by $120 billion between 2019 and 2024
Creating the environment necessary for solid economic growth averaging 2.7 per cent over the next four years, inflation firmly under control, 240,000 more jobs and wages growing faster than inflation every single year.

Investor Boost

In practice, this policy will reward businesses who make new investments by reducing their tax bills in the year they purchase new assets. For example, with Investment Boost, an advanced manufacturing firm that purchases a $200,000 environmental test chamber would reduce its tax bill by more than $10,000 in the year of purchase.

“The policy is expected to cost an average of $1.7 billion per year in reduced revenue across the forecast period.

Our Government knows businesses have been knocked around by challenging local and international economic conditions. This tax incentive shows that we are backing them to succeed.

Education

Budget 2025 invests $2.5 billion over the forecast period in Vote Education with a focus on delivering a transformational boost to learning support funding.

Delivering a major boost to learning support for children with additional needs.
Providing more maths teachers and tutoring to help lift achievement.
Building new schools and hundreds of new classrooms for kids across NZ.

Key investments include substantial annual increases to teacher aide hours, building up to over 2 million additional teacher aide hours per year, from 2028; Learning Support Co-ordinators for all schools with Year 1-8 students; expanding early intervention services from early learning through to end of year 1; and an historic overhaul of the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme (ORS) funding model to ensure that demand for the service is met with guaranteed funding so all students with high and complex needs who are verified for ORS receive the support they need.

The learning support funding package includes:

$266 million to extend the Early Intervention Service (EIS) from early childhood education through to the end of year 1 of primary school. This will fund more than 560 additional FTE for EIS teachers and specialists. We are investing in:

expanding the service through to the end of Year 1 to support the effective transition into school of around 4,000 children with additional needs.
reducing existing waitlists in early intervention so that more than 3,000 children that need the support receive it sooner.

increasing the amount of specialist support provided to the more than 7,100 children who are currently enrolled in EIS.

building up annually to an additional 900,000 teacher aide hours per year, from 2028, to support young learners in EIS.

$122 million to meet increased demand for ORS (Ongoing Resourcing Scheme) for students with high and complex needs. This includes a structural change to the funding model so every child who is verified for ORS funding receives the support they need. This investment will also increase the number of specialists and teacher aide time to support the more than 1,700 additional learners forecast to access ORS over the next four years.

$192 million to ensure that over three years, all Year 1-8 schools and kura are funded for a Learning Support Coordinator to work with students, families and educators to identify and respond to learner needs. This investment will benefit 1250 schools and an additional 300,000 learners around New Zealand.

$43 million for an extra 78.5 FTE speech language therapists, as well as additional psychologists and supporting teacher aide hours to help meet the growing demand of students with communication and behaviour needs. This will provide specialist supports to around 2500 students over the next four years.

$3 million of investment in our teacher aides with targeted professional development for working with learners with social, emotional, wellbeing, behavioural, and neurodiverse needs.

$4 million to employ 25 intern educational psychologists each year to enable a more sustainable pipeline of locally trained workforce. 

$90 million of capital for approximately 25 new learning support satellite classrooms to provide around 225 new student places across the Ministry of Education’s specialist school network, as well as provide learning support property modifications so that schools are more accessible to learners with additional needs.  

“Across all learning support services in Vote Education, we are building up to more than 2 million additional teacher aide hours into the system every year from 2028.

“The education sector has been calling for more support for a long time, and this Government is delivering results. This investment recognises and responds to the growing number of children with additional learning needs and the pressure it places on teachers,” Ms Stanford says. 

Budget 2025 also includes substantive key investments in the Government’s priority areas:

$298 million into strengthening Curriculum and Assessment supports, including $132.2 million for accelerated learning in literacy and maths.
$572 million of capital funding invested into school property.
$100 million of operating funding, to maintain and upgrade classrooms.
$150 million to build the education workforce of the future through leadership development pathways, teacher supply initiatives, and funded registration and certification.
$104 million to support Māori learner success, including $50 million of capital funding for new classrooms in Māori Medium and Kaupapa Māori schools.
$140 million for a new attendance service and to support and strengthen frontline attendance services. 

Primary sector

This year alone, the food and fibre sector is forecast to contribute $56.9 billion to the economy, that’s why we’re focused on unlocking new global opportunities – to further strengthen the sector’s resilience, Budget 2025 includes a new focus on driving growth and rural wellbeing through a series of targeted grassroots investments:

$246 million over four years in a new Primary Sector Growth Fund (PSGF) to help lift food and fibre sector productivity, profitability, and resilience;
$2 million over four years in a contestable rural wellbeing fund;
$1m extra over four years for Rural Support Trusts and other organisations to support farmers and growers;
$400,000 over four years in direct grants for New Zealand’s A&P shows;
Ongoing support for catchment groups of $36 million over the next four years, through the Ministry for Primary Industries;
$250,000 for the 2025/26 financial year for Rural Women New Zealand to boost its on-the-ground support for rural communities.

Health

Budget 2025 provides a significant boost to ensure more New Zealanders can see a GP, get timely care, and avoid unnecessary hospital visits. The budget includes:

Continued record investment in health to improve everyday health services across New Zealand.
$1 billion to upgrade key hospitals like Nelson and the Wellington Emergency Department, so patients have access to modern, fit-for-purpose facilities.
New and improved urgent and after-hours care so it’s easier for Kiwis to see a doctor when and where they need to.
Extending prescription lengths to 12-months, meaning less time and money spent visiting the doctor.

 It is hard to get a doctor's appointment and so this budget's record investment in health enables the following key funding uplifts for primary care:

$285 million in performance-based funding over three years, over and above the annual capitation uplift, to support primary practice to be more accessible for patients and deliver more services in the community.
Annual capitation uplift negotiations are now underway between Health New Zealand and primary care providers. The Government provided Health New Zealand with a $1.37 billion uplift in Budget 2025, including to support a primary care capitation funding uplift.
$447m primary care investment in Budget 2025 in 24/7 digital health services, after-hours and urgent care, and more funding for training doctors and nurses to work in primary care.

 This is the largest increase in primary care funding in many years. It gives providers the opportunity to begin addressing the impacts of years of underfunding by the previous government.”

The $285 million performance improvement package will:

Increase access to general practice for patients.
Incentivise immunisations through targeted performance funding.
Support GPs to carry out minor elective procedures, helping reduce pressure on hospitals.

This additional investment has been made possible by the Government’s record investment into health which increased health spending by 7.4 per cent in total funding over the next financial year, an increase of 6.2 per cent per capita.

 This announcement builds on previous Government initiatives to strengthen primary care, including:

100 clinical placements in primary care for overseas-trained doctors
Recruitment incentives for up to 400 graduate nurses to work in primary care annually for five years
100 additional doctor training places at our medical schools over the course of this Government
Up to 50 graduate doctors training in primary care annually
Up to 120 training places for nurse practitioners in primary care
Accelerated tertiary education for up to 120 primary care nurses
New and expanded access to urgent care and after-hours services
Access to 24/7 digital health services for all New Zealanders to be launched in the middle of this year.

You can find all the information you need about the budget on the Budget website. www.budget.govt.nz

If you want to look for specific sector budgets look for the appropriations documents on the site.