Finance Minister Grant Robertson gives pre-Budget speech in Auckland

Finance Minister Grant Robertson has acknowledged the “very challenging time” being faced by many New Zealand households and businesses.

He spoke to a BNZ business breakfast in Auckland on Friday, after a speech in Wellington Thursday where he revealed the Government had found $4 billion worth of savings and “reprioritisations”.

On Friday, he focused on recovery and resilience, including economic resilience, highlighting rising wages and free-trade agreements the Government had negotiated.

He said the Budget would provide support for the response to the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle clean-up. It would also aim to help plug Aotearoa’s “extraordinary infrastructure deficit”.

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“We are working with Regional Recovery Agencies as they develop their regional recovery plans. We’re also working with banks and insurance companies to ensure they remain part of the response and solutions to the issues private businesses are facing.”

He said the Government was also looking at how it could support severely affected sectors, such as the horticulture industry, to rebuild.

“This will take a little more time, but we recognise the urgency in giving certainty of the Government’s commitment. I can say for sure we are in this for long haul as a partner,” he said.

Robertson said central government could not take on all of the costs of the recovery, but it had taken on “the majority of the initial response costs, because it is the right and necessary thing to do”.

“As we have shown during previous crises, it was important that we put support in place quickly to provide cashflow and confidence in the immediate aftermath of this natural disaster.

“As we move to the rebuild phase and consider the future of severely affected land following the floods, hard calls are going to have to be made, by central government, local government, commercial businesses and local communities, banks and insurance companies.

“It will require a partnership – for making decisions, and how we finance these decisions.”

Robertson said infrastructure investment would be critical to the rebuild from recent extreme weather events and to further economic growth and security.

”New Zealand has an extraordinary infrastructure deficit. Treasury’s Investment Statement last year estimated the cost of addressing the deficit and stopping it getting worse at $210 billion over the next thirty years,” he said.

“Decades of failing to maintain and enhance our infrastructure has been exacerbated by failing to plan and build for population growth.

“On Budget Day the Government will be taking further steps to fund investment in the infrastructure rebuild following the cyclone and floods, and, importantly, looking towards future national resilience projects.”

The Government had a “moral obligation” to every New Zealander to protect and close the infrastructure deficit, Robertson said.

“We won’t just kick the can down the road when it comes to creating the building blocks for a stronger more resilient economy, and a more connected and inclusive society,” he said.

“That is why a key focus of Budget 2023 will be fiscal sustainability to ensure we can invest in a resilient economy and continue to support the recovery from the recent extreme weather.

“Now is not the time to be putting that resilience at risk by undermining the Government’s fiscal position with unfunded inflationary tax cuts, which would take money away from the Government’s ability to step up and support communities by planning ahead.”