That's all for our live Budget 2025 coverage today. Thanks for joining us. Pō mārie, good night. 

Council of Trade Unions (CTU) director of policy and economist Craig Renney said the planned changes to KiwiSaver would hurt low-income workers the most. 

The Government KiwiSaver tax rebate is being halved for all those earning less than $180,000 and dropped completely for those earning more than $180,000.

“Einstein famously said the most powerful force in the universe wasn’t gravity, it was compound interest”, Renney told Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive.

“Even small amounts of change for low-income groups can make a real difference to the amount they can save over time … and we end up paying for it later on in additional support, or housing support. For other income groups it makes a pretty marginal difference.”

However, Renney supported the extension of the retirement savings scheme to 16 and 17-year-olds: “The more we can encourage a culture of savings now the more sustainable the pension will be.”

Former Business NZ boss Phil O’Reilly said his old workplace had described the Budget as “credible”, and he agreed.

“They had to thread the needle between fiscal consolidation … and at the same time stay true to their growth agenda, and I think they did a reasonable job of that”, O’Reilly told Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive.

The Incentive Boost would give people the confidence to invest, he said.

The tax break for businesses allows them to deduct 20% of the value of a new asset from their taxable income for that year.

He supported a 20% deduction, compared with the 100% deduction that had previously been offered in some countries.

The latter could encourage “pointless growth”, O’Reilly said.

“You want to incentivise growth, but you want to make it a logical pathway so that I don’t just go and buy five computers. Because that’s pointless, that’s not growth.”

Meanwhile, Craig Renney, director of policy and economist at the Council of Trade Unions, was disappointed that the “taking of the pay equity money” hadn’t gone into things that would benefit the affected workers.

"Instead, we saw benefits being taken from 18 and 19-year-olds.

 "Fine, but there’s no clarity as to what parental levels of responsibility look like.”

He described the decision to include incomplete plans in the Budget changes as “very strange”.

“My guess is the politics of that is they’re still working out exactly how they’re going to do that, and how they’re going to communicate that.”

Former Work and Income boss Christine Rankin has backed the Government's plans, announced in today’s Budget, to return parental financial responsibility for 18 and 19-year-olds not in work or training.

“I absolutely love it,” Rankin told Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive.

She said no 18 or 19-year-old should receive a message that if they don’t make a genuine effort, they shouldn’t worry because the Government will fix it for them.

“And the benefit’s the road to poverty. It’s a terrible situation to allow them to be in when they should be starting their working life, or studying.”

Rankin described the move as “fair, reasonable, and responsible”.

“[It’s] giving exactly the message they need. Labour said, ‘Come in, and we’ll give you absolutely everything, and you can have it as long as you like, and you don’t have to do a thing’.

“How disgraceful is that to anyone, let alone young people.”

Asked why the Government hadn't put the $5 billion saved this financial year towards debt, Nicola Willis said it was because Kiwis would have paid a heavy price for doing so.

"Fewer health services, schools getting cuts to their funding in real terms, I wouldn’t have money to pay teachers more, police wouldn’t get the resources needed, and the Defence Force would continue its slide to becoming more suited to a backwater," the Finance Minister told Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive.

"There are investments that need to be made and we are funding them from savings. That’s the responsible way."

The Investment Boost tax incentive would boost growth and GDP by about 1% over the next 20 years, with half of that increase occurring within the next five years, Finance Minister Nicola Willis told Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive.

Combined with other reforms, including changes to the Resource Management Act, setting up Invest New Zealand, and encouraging foreign investment, the Government was “doing things that are going to generate measurable growth.”

“But Investment Boost says to every business, if you make a new investment in a new asset, we are going to deduct the cost of that from your tax bill – a 20% deduction. So, if you’re thinking about making an investment, do it, because we’re going to help you out.”

A 100% deduction would have cost the country more than $8.5 billion a year, according to Inland Revenue, Willis said.

“And the advice was it wouldn’t have paid for itself because it starts to incentivise investments that wouldn’t stack up.

“Our advice is 20% was the sweet spot … it will get people investing. If you’re a tradie and you go and buy a ute tomorrow, you’ve now got a 20% deduction on the cost of that ute against your tax bill.”

The Government is still working on the fine details of plans aimed at keeping 18 and 19-year-olds off the dole, Nicola Willis told ZB's Heather du Plessis-Allan.

Budget 2025 includes a change that places the responsibility for financially supporting 18 and 19-year-olds back on parents, rather than the state.

“[We’re] still finalising the details of the policy, but the basic concept is this is about helping parents," Willis said.

“I have met parents who say, ‘I’ve got a 19-year-old who spends all day on the couch playing PlayStation, and it’s pretty difficult because you, the Government, send him a cheque each fortnight'.

“Kids should be in training, an apprenticeship or work, and if they’re not, they can’t get the benefit.”

There would be some exceptions, such as in the case of a family breakdown where parents don’t have the means to support their adult children, Willis said.

Asked if parents’ incomes would be means-tested, she said: “That might be part of the test, but we need to make sure it's tight enough so that not everyone gets an exception.

“Because we genuinely want to get those kids into working and training. If you start on a benefit at that age, on average you’re going to spend more than 15 years on a benefit. That is bad news for everyone.”

The Government has halved the KiwiSaver tax subsidy for those earning under $180,000, saying the reduced incentive is still enough to encourage retirement savings, Finance Minister Nicola Willis told Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive on Newstalk ZB late this afternoon.

The annual $521 credit has been scrapped entirely for individuals earning more than $180,000.

“Our judgment was that the [$260] contribution is enough to give people a nudge into saving, who might not otherwise,” said Willis.

“And it keeps people in the scheme even if they go through a period where they can’t make their own contributions, knowing the Government’s going to give them that extra cash.”

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown said he wasn't expecting much in the Budget for the city today.

"We look after ourselves," said Brown, who is seeking re-election this year.

"Most of my manifesto asks don’t cost the Government anything ... But I can see investment in developing talent, innovation, technology and science, so that looks promising, as does a focus on overseas investments, trade and infrastructure for growth. Hopefully, the funding won’t get lost in Wellington, as it sometimes does.

"Only time will tell how much of this impacts the real world. Elections are won or lost in Auckland, so I hope for them it will have an impact.”

New Zealand's largest private sector union, E tū, has described the 2025 Budget as a “direct attack” on working people, particularly women in frontline care and community services.

E tū National Secretary Rachel Mackintosh said: “This Budget is a theft of wages from women.

“The Government is paying for its corporate handouts by stealing from the pockets of caregivers, teacher aides and social workers. It’s a cynical, calculated betrayal.”

The pay equity changes have stopped 33 active claims and raised the bar so high that future claims may be impossible, E tū said in a statement.

“The Government has made it clear: if you’re a woman in a care or community service role, your wages are not a priority.”