Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says the move on interest deductibility announced over the weekend may have been a compromise on what the National-Act coalition agreement had set out, but that was a compromise to reflect the current fiscal situation.
He said that was a mark of a “grown-up Government”.
Luxon made the comments yesterday at his weekly post-Cabinet press conference.
Listen live: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon talks to Mike Hosking at 7.30am
“We’ve phased it and delivered it in a slightly different way, but that wasn’t a biggie for either of the two parties,” Luxon said.
He said the aim was to ease costs on landlords to try to increase the availability of rental properties.
Asked if there was an issue with applying a retrospective tax break to landlords, he said they had simply concluded it was the best way to move on the policy.
“We are a dynamic Government, looking at the situation we are in.”
He said both parties wanted to restore interest deductibility and had to work out the best way to do that.
Luxon wouldn’t promise rents would drop but said rents had risen a lot under the previous Government because of extra costs loaded onto landlords. Asked if he would drop the rent on his rental properties, he said it was a matter of his personal finances and would not answer.
Asked what his Government had done so far to ease the cost of living crisis for people, he said it had changed the Reserve Bank mandate and scrapped the Auckland regional fuel tax, as well as halting other fuel taxes for the rest of the term.
“I spoke to you guys two years about the risk of rising inflation. We are trying to deal with the cause of that by getting inflation back under control.”
Luxon said a priority for the Government over the term will be building international connections and trade, pointing to his visit to Australia last week to meet leaders of Asean countries - a key market - and Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ trip to India this week.
He said he intended to build on his relationships with those leaders. Luxon also met with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh in Wellington this morning to discuss building trade between the two countries.
He will entertain Chinh over dinner tonight.
Luxon said he wanted to focus New Zealand’s attention on the Indo-Pacific region and intended to take a big trade delegation to India himself toward the end of the year.
Luxon said he had not spoken to Seymour about his critiques last week of TVNZ reporting.
“All politicians have issues with the media.”
Asked if it was appropriate for a shareholding minister to criticise the editorial decisions of the broadcaster, Luxon said Seymour was “expressing his views”.
He had not seen all of the comments Seymour had made.
He did not believe Seymour had contravened his duties as a shareholding minister in TVNZ. However, he said he had spoken to his Cabinet recently, underscoring the issue of probity and making sure all ministers knew their responsibilities and obligations.
On what the Government might be doing in the media, he said it would look at what happened with the Fair Digital Trading bill and a review of the Broadcasting Act, but there was no appetite for the Government to intervene by offering subsidies for media.
Luxon said he hoped to close out the remaining recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry into the mosque shootings and hoped to do that by mid-year.
He would not say if hate speech reforms were totally off the table, saying Judith Collins was looking at the recommendations.
“All I’ve expressed to Judith is that it’s not fair the recommendations sit there for five years and don’t get done. We cannot carry on for another five years.”
Luxon said he had spent a lot of time in Christchurch at the time when he was Air New Zealand chief executive. He would be meeting with those affected by the attacks this week ahead of March 15 in private meetings to hear their concerns.
Speaking on Seymour’s review of the food in schools programme, Luxon said the previous Government had not put in place funding to continue it after next year. He was committed to continuing with it, but was keen to look at whether there were better ways to deliver it.
“The effectiveness of the programme is important to us.”
Luxon would not talk in detail about reports the Government was looking at offering bonds or compensation to oil and gas companies, which would compensate them if a future Government changed the policy and halted mining permits. He said that would have to go through the Cabinet process.
Today, the Government confirmed the appointment of former National leader Simon Bridges as the new chairman of NZ Transport Agency - Waka Kotahi (NZTA).
The announcement was made by Transport Minister Simeon Brown this afternoon.
“Simon brings extensive experience and knowledge in transport policy and governance to the role. He will have a strong focus on delivery and outcomes and ensure that NZTA is working to implement the Government Policy Statement on land transport, which will provide the infrastructure New Zealanders need,” Brown said.
“Transport is a critical part of the Government’s plan for economic growth and productivity, and I look forward to working closely with Simon over the coming years to deliver the Government’s transport objectives,” he said.
Media and Communications Minister Melissa Lee is meant to be taking a paper to Cabinet on the media. Little is known about it, save that Lee wants to update the ageing Broadcasting Act.
The Government has also announced it will phase-in interest deductions for residential landlords. The policy will begin in April, but the coalition agreement signed in December promised deductions would be backdated for the 2023/24 tax year, something that has now changed.
“More costs on landlords mean higher rents. Our Government is going to ease the pressure by restoring interest deductibility for rental properties,” Luxon posted to X, formerly Twitter.
Act had wanted the policy to be phased in more quickly. It is unclear what, if any, concessions Act extracted out of National in return for changing the speed at which the policy comes in.
This week is a recess week in Parliament, meaning MPs will not be meeting in Wellington for regular sittings of Parliament.
The New Zealand Defence force has a budget shortfall of $130 million.