Associate Finance Minister Megan Woods, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on their way into the House for the reading of the Budget 2023. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Associate Finance Minister Megan Woods, Finance Minister Grant Robertson and Prime Minister Chris Hipkins on their way into the House for the reading of the Budget 2023. Photo / Mark Mitchell
The cost-of-living struggle will continue for Whanganui families and older people despite some provisions in Budget 2023 - and business leaders say there’s nothing much in it for regional businesses.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson made some cost-of-living spending announcements - expanding free early childhood education, abolishing prescription co-payments and providing free public transport for children - which were welcomed by many Whanganui commentators but there were also sectors that missed out.
Whanganui City Mission board chairman Kevin Gaskin said although some families would appreciate relief from expenses such as prescription charges, childcare and transport costs for children, they would not benefit everyone.
“The reality is that some families can no longer afford to pay rent,” he said.
“We are seeing a 25 per cent increase in demand for our food parcels and we rely on volunteers for our workforce. It’s good to see that there is some relief but it won’t resolve the shortage of affordable housing.”
Gaskin said he wanted to acknowledge Whanganui people for their generosity with voluntary time and donations that had helped to keep the foodbank going.
Central City Pharmacy owner Stacey Simpson said she was “super happy” the $5 prescription charges would no longer apply from July this year.
”It makes it more equitable for people to get their medicines without having to worry about cost, and it improves access to medication. It gives people more options when perhaps money is tight.
“This is going to be a great improvement all around for the health sector.”
Simpson said the Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand had been pushing for the move for a long time.
Keith St School principal Linda Ireton said there did not seem to be any surprises in the Budget.
“The free public transport will be good for children but will probably benefit those in the larger centres more. We were hoping to see more resources and support for specialised education and there doesn’t seem to be any provision for that.”
Ireton said the dropping of the $5 prescription charge was good news for children and families with continuous medical prescriptions.
Claire Southee, the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) regional representative for the early childhood private and community sector, said the pay parity announcement was very welcome.
“The problem is that it has been a long time coming and we have lost good people from the sector.”
Southee said while the 20 hours of free childcare for 2-year-olds would make early childcare more accessible for parents, the sector may struggle to provide adequate staffing levels.
“While it is good news, we can’t anticipate the demand, and some centres have already been short-staffed.”
Southee said it was cause for celebration that Early Childhood Education (ECE) teachers in private and community facilities would now have pay parity with kindergarten teachers because the training and qualifications were the same.
Age Concern Whanganui manager Michelle Malcolm said the Budget was very focused on families and children and education, “which was great but the cost-of-living impact was for families and not so much for older people”.
“I was expecting something around food and GST coming off for fruit and vegetables but that didn’t occur,” Malcolm said.
“Even though there was an increase in the pension and the winter energy payment, everything’s going up. With the price of power and food, things are tough for people at the moment.”
“The cost of living is the biggest issue facing older people and also housing. We’re lucky in Whanganui we have the council flats.”
Malcolm welcomed the announcement that public transport would remain half-price for total mobility card holders.
“It’s great that they’re dropping the prescription fee so that will have a positive impact on older people in our community. I think not having to pay for prescription scripts is great for everyone, especially for older people that have to take a lot of medication due to their health issues. If you’re having to pay for the cost of going to a GP and then per script as well, it could be you’re on four, five or six medications and that’s an extra $30 or $40.”
Jigsaw Whanganui executive officer Tim Metcalfe said there were a number of practical supports for families in the Budget.
“The 20 hours a week of early childhood education for 2-year-olds is a good move,” he said.
“I also think the pay parity for ECE staff is a good move because they have been waiting a while for that and now I think the social service workforce should be next.”
Metcalfe said social service workers had been dealing with increasingly complex situations in recent years, while facing their own increased living costs.
“I do think that provisions for continuing with the healthy homes programme, school lunches and now the dropping of prescriptions charges are practical moves and every little bit helps.”
Whanganui Mayor Andrew Tripe said as well as being no-frills, it was also a “no thrills” Budget.
”That’s probably contextual for the time we’re in,” he said.
”We’re in a cost-of-living crisis not seen in generations.”
He said the Budget’s “young family focus” was good for the Whanganui community.
”There’s a fair chunk going towards infrastructure and housing and I think that’s a sensible area to focus on.
”When I think about those most vulnerable - those right at the end of the housing spectrum that don’t have houses or have inadequate houses - I’m not really seeing that addressed.”
”It’s going to be a particularly tough time for businesses to navigate post-Covid and also now we’ve got a massive slowdown,” Tripe said.
”There is the training incentive allowance [$238 million] that is being addressed where it should be - sole parents, disabled people and their carers - but what about growing wider capability and skills across New Zealand to increase productivity?
”I’m really not seeing how the Government is partnering with business to do that.”
Overall, no one really won out of the Budget, Tripe said.
”At the end of the day, we need to increase our government revenue to put back into our communities and that seems to be lacking.”
Ruapehu Mayor Weston Kirton said his community would not benefit from the public transport schemes as there were none in the district.
”I think that’s what upsets a lot of the people in our area - they feel left out in the backwater with any initiative or government-funded subsidy.
”We’ll benefit from the packages around families, no doubt, but the cost of living has affected people from all ends of the scale.
”People here can’t move because there’s no public transport, there are petrol prices, and people on fixed incomes or benefits are finding it too hard.”
Kirton said the Budget was “certainly not a game-changer at all”.
”I see there is $63m to allow 500 more nurses to be employed, which is great, but that may not happen because they just aren’t out there are they?
”From what I’ve read so far, it’s a bit of an anticlimax.”
Horizons Regional Council transport manager Mark Read said he welcomed the news public transport would be half-price for under-25s and free for under-13s.
”We support anything that makes public transport more accessible to large portions of our community and encourages people to create a habit of using public transport.
”We’re seeing a good level of support for [the Government’s] recent half-price fares scheme so it’s good to see they’re continuing with it.”
Surprise package welcomed
Stan Walker in his first Te Matatini appearance for Te Reanga Mōrehu o Ratana. Photo / Te Matatini
The Budget includes a $34m increase in funding for Te Matatini over two years - up from $3m a year at present - making it the highest-funded arts service provider.
The Whanganui-Taranaki region will host the biennial national kapa haka festival in 2025.
”The fact that Te Matatini found a space in a wellbeing budget was surprising but it’s a win for most Māori in this Budget, especially as the region gears up to host the event,” kapa haka tutor Poutama Paki said.
Whanganui Chamber of Commerce chief executive Helen Garner said the budget was typical for an election year, with the Government keeping stronger incentives to be announced closer to the election.
”It’ll be interesting to see what comes out before the election or closer to that time,” Garner said.
She welcomed the $77 billion joint investments into infrastructure and climate resilience, as those sectors had been suffering from a major deficit for quite some time.
“We need good infrastructure to help build a strong economy, so we’ll look forward to seeing what that entails.”
On the tax rebates for gaming developers, she said it was not particularly relevant to Whanganui but it would be interesting to see whether it put New Zealand in an advantageous position.
There was a tech industry in Whanganui so the investments could help grow the sector locally.
Many people were attracted to tech roles due to their high pay with low carbon footprints, so it was a good avenue to focus on for the economy.
“If it stops them from moving to Australia then, yeah, let’s take a look at it,” she said.
The other part of the Budget to catch her eye was the added investment in early childhood education (ECE).
“From a business perspective what it might do is encourage some people back into work, because there are a sector of the potential workforce that at the moment say it is ... not economical for them to go to work, they are actually better off not working.”
This was due to the current high costs of enrolling a child in ECE.
“If we can encourage people to be productive and contributing members of society then that’s got to be a good thing.”
She expected things to heat up closer to the election in terms of economic incentives.
Local tourism operators seem to have missed out in the Budget, Hayden Potaka says. Photo / Gail Imhoff
Te Manu Atatū Whanganui Māori Business Network board chairman Hayden Potaka said he didn’t see much in the Budget that would help either small to medium businesses or local tourism operators.
“It would be good to go back and have a look at some of the work they did for the $100m capital fund that they were going to have allocated for business,” Potaka said.
He was not sure what the uptake on the fund was but did not know anyone within Te Manu Atatū who had taken part in it last year.
“I can see there’s not much been put into the tourism sector as well. There was talk of having stronger levies on incoming tourists but that’s yet to be seen.”
The areas focused on in the Budget, such as recovery from disasters, were needed but he didn’t see much to help his sectors.
The lack of investment to help the local tourism industry was in line with previous Budgets, with support instead going to larger regions.
“We’ve sort of been trying to survive over the past three to four years ... the reintroduction of international travellers was slower than we thought as well.”
In general, he thought the tourism industry was going well off its own bat, but he didn’t see anything in the Budget that would assist it any further.
Whanganui & Partners (W&P) acting chief executive Jonathan Sykes said the agency was pleased to hear a much-talked-about technical recession would be avoided.
”This agency has been deliberate in tempering predictions for this technical recession for some time.
”We’ve been recording good consumer and visitor spend growth for Whanganui, money is circulating in our economy and it is good to see what we have been tracking reflected in the national commentary,” Sykes said.
The Treasury’s forecast for inflation to continue to fall would be reassuring for businesses faced with heightened operational costs, which was bucking the forecasted trend from last year.
”It’s been a relief for businesses to see inflation easing over the past few months and it certainly helps those that have been worried about what’s next to trim from their operations.”
W&P hoped the $77m extension to the Apprenticeship Boost scheme would be accessible to local businesses.
Sykes said provisions for skills training were important for local businesses following April’s rise in the minimum wage and changes to the living wage ahead.
The $1b package of initiatives introduced to support the recovery and rebuild for regions impacted by severe weather events would also benefit the local economy.
”The East Coast in particular will need labour and skills and we are well placed to contribute to the rebuild efforts.
”We know there are local workers and businesses already working on the East Coast,” he said.
Investment in highway infrastructure was also good, as the local manufacturing sector was dependent on well-maintained trade routes.
He also highlighted measures such as the ECE free hours increase and lowering of the age threshold.
”This benefits our community as parents of young children have slightly more in their pockets and more opportunities to join the workforce if they choose to.”
Whanganui Federated Farmers president Robert Ervine said he was listening intently to the Budget announcement.
”Agriculture has been ignored but maybe that’s a good thing to some degree. He [Robertson] has left us alone for now.
”I don’t think there’s anything in there that will increase productivity. Big-picture stuff, we’ve got to actually grow the economy and make business more profitable to fund this.”
There were some, “maybe even a lot”, of farming businesses that operated in a trust, so increasing the tax rate for trustees from 33 per cent to 39 per cent would have an effect, Ervine said.
Getting rid of the $5 prescription fee was a positive, as was funding for property improvements at rural schools, he said.
”Rural schools are the hub of the community and if the schools disappear, the communities disintegrate.
“Again, it’s all about delivery. They can promise what they like but can they actually deliver it?”
