Source: New Zealand Police
State Highway 1, Clarence is currently closed near Clarence Valley Road due to a vehicle fire.
The fire was reported at around 6:20am.
No injuries have been reported.
Detours are in place and motorists are advised to expect delays.
ENDS
Issued by Police Media Centre
Source: New Zealand Government
WorkSafe makes significant shift to rebalance its activities, launches road cone hotline
As part of a broader suite of health and safety reforms, the Government has agreed to a range of changes that will significantly refocus WorkSafe from an enforcement agency to one that engages early to support businesses and individuals to manage their critical risks, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden says.
“During my public consultation, I heard many concerns from a wide range of Kiwi businesses and workers about WorkSafe’s inconsistency, culture and lack of guidance. It was a constant theme on the roadshow from all parts of the country.
“I have listened to these concerns and today I am sharpening the focus of WorkSafe to change the culture of the agency. For too long, businesses and employers have asked for more guidance and help from WorkSafe on how to comply with health and safety legislation, only to be told it’s not WorkSafe’s job.
“A culture where the regulator is feared for its punitive actions rather than appreciated for its ability to provide clear and consistent guidance is not conducive to positive outcomes in the workplace.
“Changes begin with today’s launch of WorkSafe’s road cone tipline to look into and provide guidance on instances of over-compliance in temporary traffic management,” says Ms van Velden.
The tipline will be complemented by a joint engagement programme by WorkSafe with NZTA and key industry stakeholders, educating those involved with temporary traffic management to adopt a risk-based approach.
“In addition, WorkSafe has started slashing outdated guidance documents from its website and will be updating guidance where necessary. Fifty documents have already been removed and more will follow. These documents were identified as being no longer relevant, not reflecting current practice and technology, or containing content that is covered by other more up-to-date guidance. Removing and replacing outdated guidance will make it much easier for people to find the help they’re looking for and ensures WorkSafe is giving consistent and clear advice.
“I will also restructure WorkSafe’s appropriation to increase fiscal transparency and support delivery of my expectations.
“For some time, WorkSafe has struggled to effectively articulate the cost and effectiveness of its activities, making it difficult to monitor and assess the value of activities or the merit of requests for further funding.
“To address this, I will split WorkSafe’s appropriation into four new categories
“This change will come into effect later this year and will provide a clear framework that focuses WorkSafe through change in culture and expectations,” says Ms van Velden.
“I want to make sure that the public receives a better experience in their everyday interactions with WorkSafe. The public will be able to provide feedback on the timeliness and effectiveness of WorkSafe’s guidance, inspections and other engagements. I expect this will promote continuous improvement,” says Ms van Velden.
A Letter of Expectations has been sent to WorkSafe formalising the Minister’s expectations of WorkSafe.
“I want to thank WorkSafe’s Board, Chief Executive and staff for acknowledging the work ahead, making WorkSafe’s work programme fit for purpose,” says Ms van Velden.
Notes to Editors:
Strategic Baseline Review: Independent reviews of WorkSafe | Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment
Source: New Zealand Police
Emergency services are at the scene of a serious crash near the intersection of Clyde and Fox Streets, Hamilton East, involving a car and a pedestrian.
Police were called about 7.12pm.
Initial indications are the pedestrian has received critical injuries.
The road is closed, with diversions in place.
Please avoid the area, if possible.
ENDS
Issued by Police Media Centre
Source: Auckland Transport
Date: 27 May 2025
Major rail upgrades to bring more frequent and reliable services mean no trains will be running from Friday 30 May to Monday 2 June, say Auckland Transport and KiwiRail.
The work is happening across the Auckland rail network to get ready for the opening of the City Rail Link (CRL) in 2026.
This four-day closure is part of KiwiRail’s ongoing Rail Network Rebuild programme. AT and CRL Limited also have work underway this weekend while trains aren’t running.
No trains will operate during this period, including on Friday 30 May, a standard weekday. To support passengers, AT will operate frequent all-stop rail replacement bus services (RBE, RBW, RBS, and RBO) across all lines.
These buses, which will stop at or near all train stations and are designed to keep our regular rail passengers moving while trains can’t run. Aucklanders are also encouraged to use regular scheduled buses like the #18 New Lynn to City Centre, or #70 Panmure to City Centre.
“This work has been timed by KiwiRail to coincide with a long weekend and reduce the impact as much as possible, but we know it’s inconvenient for passengers,” says Stacey van der Putten, AT’s Director of Public Transport and Active Modes.
“We’re doing everything we can to keep people moving and the major upgrade work will make it possible for trains every 5-8 minutes across much of the rail network and cuts in journey times.”
“The work we’re doing now will unlock the full benefits of the City Rail Link and transform how people move around Auckland.”
“Our teams will be working day and night this holiday weekend to get as much renewal and upgrade work completed as possible”, said Dave Gordon, KiwiRail’s Chief Metro & Capital Programme Officer.
“We’re pulling out the stops to ensure Auckland’s rail system is in top operational shape for the City Rail Link next year. Our continued thanks to Aucklanders for their patience as we undertake this critical work”.
No passenger or freight trains will be running in the Auckland region over King’s Birthday weekend and the Matariki holiday weekend. RNR works will continue on priority areas on the Southern Line between Papakura and Wiri during these times and upgrades of the rail infrastructure around Henderson Station will continue.
Further rail closures planned for June and July
There will be two further rail closures during June and July to enable KiwiRail and CRL Limited to upgrade Auckland’s rail infrastructure and facilities, including disruptive work that needs to happen when trains aren’t running, and some stations are closed.
A full rail closure is planned for the extended Matariki weekend – from Friday 20 to Monday 23 June.
There is also a partial rail closure scheduled for the winter school holidays, from Saturday 28 June to Sunday 13 July. During these school holidays:
This work will enable more frequent trains for Western Line passengers when CRL opens in 2026.
Passengers are encouraged to visit the AT website for detailed information on replacement bus routes, station-specific maps, and journey planning tools.
Auckland Transport thanks all passengers for their patience and support as we continue to invest in a modern, high-capacity rail system for Auckland.
Source: New Zealand Police
Taneatua Road is closed following a single-vehicle crash this afternoon.
Emergency services were alerted to the crash near White Pine Bush Road at around 2.20pm.
One person has received critical injuries.
The road is closed and diversions are in place.
Motorists are advised to avoid the area if possible and expect delays.
ENDS
Source: ACT Party
Speech
ACT Leader David Seymour
Sunday 1 June, 2025
ACT New Zealand Celebration Brunch
Intro
“It does not take a majority to prevail … but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men and woman.”
That was Sam Adams, one of the United States’ founding fathers. So many people here today, and some who sadly couldn’t be, fit Sam Adams’ description:
I know one or two here are, occasionally, irate.
To get this far, we’ve had to be tireless.
I suspect we’ll always be a minority, but we succeed by setting brushfires in people’s minds.
Human freedom, to do what you like if you don’t harm others, is the only thing truly worth fighting for. Only when that principle prevails can we turn our efforts on fighting problems in the natural world, instead of each other.
This is no swansong, just a little rest before the next climb, perhaps the next setback, we’ve had lots of both, and we’ll have lots more.
Today’s an opportunity to thank you for all your efforts setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of New Zealanders, and recommit ourselves to the mission of promoting a free society.
Challenges I’ve faced and people who’ve helped/what I’ve learned from them
Now, it hasn’t always been easy. If I had to pick a theme song for the last ten years, it could be one of Mark Knopfler. The Scaffolder’s Wife. Mark always writes with great empathy for the struggling.
“In the wicked old days, when we went it alone. Kept the company goin,’ on a wing and a prayer.”
Those words really stick with me, because sum up my first six years of leading ACT.
In fact, it hasn’t just been a bit difficult. Most of the time it seemed bloody impossible.
It’s a happy miracle our party exists. There is no party committed to human freedom anywhere in the world as successful as ACT. Most politicians find it too easy to get votes by promising other people’s money, or promising to regulate other people’s choices.
We take the hard road. We seek political power by promising voters only the freedom to make the most of their own lives. We do so because only the creative powers of a free society can generate the wealth to overcome our challenges.
Not only is our mission fundamentally hard, but sometimes we’ve made it harder than necessary. I hesitate to bring it up, but we’ve burned ourselves on one or two of our own brushfires along the way.
Our perk buster took a perk. Our tough on crime guy got convicted. Our leadership had a civil war. We were subject to an unconventional coup.
In 2011, ACT ran one of the most corageous three-pronged election campaigns in modern history. Supply side economics, one law for all, and freeing the weed. There are constituencies for all three causes, but they don’t all get along.
John Banks steadied the ship, and I want to thank him for his unconditional support. John didn’t just allow the party to survive, he allowed it to survive as a liberal party.
I imagine being turned around to vote for gay marriage wasn’t easy for him. On the other hand, saying no to Jenny isn’t easier either.
John’s sacrifices allowed Jamie Whyte and I to run a ticket in 2014, but things could still get much worse. It turned out my dear friend with a CV from heaven was brilliant at everything but politics.
I say all this because it’s the backdrop to one hell of a climb. You have to see where we started to see how far we’ve come. That is, to see the full achievement of the people in this room and some who can’t be here today. We’ve made ACT the world’s most successful classical liberal party.
For five years, nothing we did made a jot of difference. There was a Facebook group called ‘Is ACT polling 1 per cent yet,’ and it seemed like it would be forever.
People said our party was not legitimate. They said we shouldn’t even be in Parliament. They said we had no real agency, being an offshoot of another party. When they talked about us, they didn’t talk about what I was saying in the present. Instead, they judged us by others had taken while I myself had been living in another country.
After the election disaster of 2017, I said that it didn’t matter what our shop was selling. We just couldn’t get anyone in the door, let alone buying.
This kind of relentless doomism was the opposite of everything ACT stands for. We believe, as Richard Prebble says in I’ve Been Thinking, that life isn’t like bad weather, you can make a difference in your time on Earth.
Unfortunately, some things were like the weather. We couldn’t make it rain financially. Eric Clapton said nobody knows you when you’re down and out. I can tell you from experience that very few donate to your political party, either.
Lindsay Fergusson is one who can’t be here, may he rest in peace. I remember we got to $7,000 left. We’d miss rent on the office and be kicked out if something didn’t change. Lindsay put $5,000 in ACT’s account and said ‘don’t tell Lynne.’ Lynne, I hope the secret’s ok to let out now.
I used to try to call two ACT members every week day. One day I called a guy called Chris Reeve. I noticed his email address was superman. He also said he wanted to donate. Could this guy be for real?
I earnestly explained where the party was up to and what I needed to raise in a year to keep it going. He looked at me and said “I’ll do half if that Jenny Gibbs will do the other half.”
I still remember clearly the first time I met Jenny, in 2005. “I’m a social liberal, too,” she said. Her generous support of ACT is published by the Electoral Commission, but her personal support of successive ACT leaders is not. She is one of the warmest and wisest women in New Zealand and we’re lucky to have her.
Not every donor gives in the thousands, but thousands have given donations to keep our party alive, even when it might have seemed like palliative care. I thank everyone who’s given to ACT, whether you gave $5 or $5,000.
Some people give their time. In the wicked old days when we went it alone, I was never really alone. So many people helped, delivering mail, erecting signs, filing the party accounts, and opening up their homes for house meetings.
Alison and Stu Macfarlane rapidly edited my second book Own Your Future. They said the timeline was mad. I said we couldn’t move the election. I think that book helped keep the party together. Most parties couldn’t publish a book of their policies. Some probably think books are a symbol of colonisation anyway. What sets ACT apart is that we are a party of ideas.
People think a political party is an enormous enterprise with limitless resources required to Govern a country. If you were taking hope or reassurance from that, I’m sorry to disappoint.
We’re more reliant on wings and prayers than massive resources. One person who found this out the hard way was Malcolm Pollock. Chis Fletcher, Auckland’s mother, introduced him to me.
He thought he might get a minor role making the tea on the sidelines of this vast edifice. We walked out of Fraser’s café as the bewildered new Chair of the Party’s only functioning electorate committee! In similar circumstances, Ruwan Premathilaka became party President.
So many Malcolms and Margarets up and down this country have volunteered to make our party possible. ACT has ten times more members today than it did when Malcolm joined.
Perhaps the hardest role in the Party is being the President. You’re legally responsible for the organization, but to survive it needs to change strategy at a moment’s notice. It must be the Governance equivalent of riding a mechanical Bull.
We’ve been lucky to have very patient presidents, who’ve been prepared to hold the ship together. The current President, John Windsor, is perhaps New Zealand’s greatest political activist.
John has never met a problem he can’t quickly and quietly fix. Signs, mail, volunteers, no problem. They say amateurs talk strategy, professional’s talk logistics. In that sense John is a true professional, and a great ACT President.
Some roles are so difficult we need to pay people to do them. That would be our parliamentary staff. If I’ve done anything right in politics, it’s been attracting and retaining great people.
Yesterday my electorate office staff came with me to Government House for the swearing in ceremony. I wanted them to be there because they’re be best electorate team in the country. They get swamped with requests for help from other electorates. There’s three positions and we’ve had one change in ten years, if turnover rates mean anything then we have a great team.
The same thing goes for ACT’s team in Wellington. We’ve been ranked by far the best working environment on the Parliamentary Precinct, and we keep attracting great talent.
One talent stood out more than any. When Brooke van Velden came to work in Wellington, the End of Life Choice Bill was still possible, but far from inevitable.
It got stuck in Select Committee for sixteen months, and the antis refused to be constructive. We couldn’t make the changes we needed to get political buy in, let-alone make good law.
We’d have to make these changes in The Committee of the Whole House stage, where each MP can individually vote on every word of the legislation. One wrong vote and the Bill could end up a nonsense, sinking a three-year project in a heartbeat.
That’s when we came up with the Sponsor’s Report. If the eight MPs on the Select Committee, supported by the Ministry of Health, couldn’t come up with a coherent set of reforms, then a 26-year-old woman with a sharp mind would.
The Sponsor’s Report remains one of the most effective policy documents ever produced in New Zealand. It was written by Brooke but, like Helen Clark, I just signed it. In the end we got MPs to vote for every change we needed to make the law, and oppose every change that would have stuffed it up.
Besides Brooke, there have been 13 other new ACT MPs in the last decade, and they have been extraordinary. Nicole, Chris, Simon, James, Karen, Mark, Toni, Damien, Todd, Andrew, Parmjeet, Laura, and Cameron have been an exceptional team of players. However, they’ve also formed a great playing team, and we know a playing team always beats a team of players.
Today our MPs in Government are delivering that real change that you asked for and we campaigned on.
Our Parliamentarians are taking on the scourge of deepfake porn. I bet Roger Douglas never thought that would be come a cause when he founded the Party.
We’re standing up for academic freedom. We’re keeping a watchful eye on bureaucracy for farmers and tradies alike.
In Government, our Ministers are reforming, reforming, reforming. Brooke is taking on our calcified Health and Safety.laws and the hoary old Holidays Act.
Nicole is finally delivering a rational approach to firearms law even as she changes the courts to speed up the clogged system.
Karen is turning the department that failed her so deeply and personally into an effective protector of those who came after her.
Andrew is standing up for the property rights of farmers when he defends New Zealand’s biosecurity.
Simon is the unsung hero of this Government, because delivering resource management law based on property rights will do more for the people who live in this country than any other reform this term.
Of course, the Party’s also bringing back charter schools, opening up overseas investment, saving the taxpayer billions, bringing Pharmac into the 21st century, slashing red tape, and legislating the Regulatory Standards Bill so for the first time our property rights will be in law. We’ve been busy.
Some people have helped ACT in more creative, unexpected ways. When the female pro dancers first met for the 2018 season of Dancing with the Stars, they all agreed on one thing. Nobody wanted to be paired with ‘that guy’. It was a guaranteed ticket home on the first elimination.
Even my own family came to opening night. They thought it would be their only chance, and I might need consolation after the show.
If I’d had any partner except Amelia McGregor, they would have been right. But we ended up campaigning as much as dancing. We took on the bullies and fought for the downtrodden, the overlooked, and the physically uncoordinated up and down New Zealand!
The kindest thing the judges said is that I proved absolutely anyone can dance.
I think that’s what our tireless minority has proven over the years. With quiet determination we can change our future, and the future course of this country. Anyone can dance.
That’s why we stand for the farmers, the landlords, the licensed firearm owners, the free speech advocates, the small business owners, and the ethnic and religious minorities. Everyone has the right to live free in the country, because anyone can dance.
Why New Zealand needs more of a movement like ours
Now, this must all sound very nostalgic. If our opponents have listened this far, they’re probably hoping I’m building up to a retirement.
I’ve talked about how we got to today because it’s worth pausing and looking back. It’s essential to acknowledge and thank the many people who got us this far. We should, as our stalwart member Vince Ashworth says, foster a culture of appreciation.
That said, I’m not going anywhere but ahead. Sorry Labour, ACT remains your worst nightmare, and New Zealand’s best hope.
Nearly every single press release, fundraising email, talking point from Labour lately has been about how dangerous David Seymour is. I get so much free accommodation living in Willie Jackson’s head, I might need to declare it to Parliament’s register of interests.
To Labour, yes I am dangerous, but only to you and your batty outriders. What’s more your strategy of directing more attention to ACT will backfire.
To paraphrase Br’er Rabbit, we’re born and bred under political pressure. When you put the spotlight on ACT, you show people the party and the attitude this country needs.
We can be down and out, through wicked old days, and rise again.
We’ve been able to do it because we have something you can never take away, our philosophy. Our core beliefs are the beliefs that founded this country.
Wave after wave of migrants have taken huge risks to give their children a better life on these islands.
We are a nation of pioneers united in the belief that things can get better, no matter how hard they seem there is always hope.
We don’t discriminate against each other, based on things we can’t change about ourselves. We only discriminate based on the choices we do make. Human freedom, and personal responsibility under the law.
We know the world is unpredictable, and the only path to success is letting a thousand flowers bloom, looking for success that we can push up, instead of pull down.
Our opponents are a Labour Party best described as lost. There is a Green Party that barely talks about the environment. There is the extraordinary spectre of a race-based party that increasingly threatens violence against its opponents, tolerated by the media.
What unites them is a poverty of spirit. The idea that other people’s success is not an example of what’s possible, but somehow the source of their supporters’ problems.
They traffic in the idolisation of envy, and even if they manage to sell it, it still won’t work.
ACT on the other hand, and our celebration today, shows that anyone can dance. Yes our country faces problems, but ACT knows how to overcome them.
It starts with belief. When seemed easiest to give up, you may find you were really just turning the corner. Today there are too many Kiwis leaving, and not enough believing.
I believe New Zealand remains a good bet. We have no excuses for not creating a great country, but it’s the culture that matters. The real culture war today is not about which bathroom you go to, it is about whether we are here to push people up or pull them down.
Can we move past the dark underbelly of tall poppy, and celebrate the achievements of Sheppard, Rutherford, Ngata and Hillary, with many more to come?
We have to believe life is a positive sum game, that win-wins are possible if we treat each other with mutual respect and dignity.
We can become a kind of Athens of the modern world, a place where creative people are welcomed to move and invest, joining people already here who fundamentally believe the point of our country is to make success possible.
Every policy should be measured against the simple test, will this create the environment for New Zealanders to solve problems and make tomorrow better than today. It’s what we used to call, progressive. It used to be an idea owned by the left, but today they are far too busy tearing people down and putting them in boxes, virtue signaling, categorising, and otherwise discriminating.
If there’s any party that can offer the values and the grit to take this country out of the doldrums and constant ‘meh’ that befalls New Zealand today, it’s the party that’s had to overcome the great Kiwi knocking machine from palliative care to the centre of Government.
That effort would not have been possible without the people in this room and beyond who believed in us when no-one else would, because they believe in the Party’s ideas.
Thank you for getting us to this milestone, and buckle yourselves in because in Hillary terms, today is only base camp.
Source: ACT Party
More than 100 people gathered this morning to support breast cancer awareness at a Pink Ribbon Breakfast at Ōrākei Bay this morning, raising over $6,000 for Breast Cancer Foundation NZ.
The event was co-hosted by Tāmaki MP Brooke van Velden and Epsom MP David Seymour with proceeds supporting research, education, and patient care across New Zealand.
“This is a cause that touches thousands of Kiwi families every year,” said van Velden.
“It’s great to see so many people from our community come together to support such an important cause.”
“Every dollar raised helps fund better outcomes for people facing breast cancer. We’re grateful to everyone who came along and contributed,” said Seymour.
“A huge thank you to our guest speaker Jude Dobson, Breast Cancer Foundation NZ ambassador, for joining us and sharing her perspective. We’re also incredibly grateful to the Foundation’s experts who gave up their time to answer questions and engage with attendees. Their presence made the event truly meaningful.”
The breakfast was made possible thanks to the generosity of local businesses. Collective Hospitality provided the stunning Ōrākei Bay venue free of charge, ensuring that all proceeds could go directly to the Breast Cancer Foundation. Function Staff, Insphire, and The Revelry also generously donated their services.
Breast Cancer Foundation NZ relies on the support of community events like this one to fund life-saving initiatives. Donations can still be made at https://fundraise.bcf.org.nz/fundraisers/DavidSeymourBrookevanVeldensPinkRibbonBreakkfast
Source: ACT Party
ACT Leader David Seymour to the Waikato Chamber of Commerce: Budget 2025 and Beyond
Thank you for the opportunity to be here, and hear from you today. Wherever I go, and I’ve said it here in Hamilton before, I say business is a beautiful form of human cooperation that too many people demonise.
Thank you for being in business. Bringing together ideas, investment, workers, and customers is almost magic. It means people can achieve together what they couldn’t do alone. That’s what I mean by beautiful, voluntary, human cooperation.
Every year, Government sets a Budget. Every three years, the people elect a new Parliament. About every six-to-nine years, the Government changes, but the real change is invisible at the time.
Politics has a rhythm that could put you to sleep, if it wasn’t so maddening: headlines, hot takes, and handouts. At least that’s what it seems like in the moment. But when you look back at politics a generation or two ago, you can see it was actually going somewhere.
What’s difficult is looking through the now, and seeing backwards from the future. How will today look in your children’s rear view mirror? What big trends were we part of, whether we realised it or not? What things will we wish we’d spent more time on, even if they don’t stand out right now?
If this sounds familiar, it should. Politics, like business, is just another extension of life.
New Zealand is in the middle of a repair job. After years of economic mismanagement and runaway spending, the Government is patching the roof while the rain still falls. But a team that’s always rebuilding never lifts the trophy. That’s why we need to move from recovery to victory.
My speech today is about acknowledging where we’re at, and feeling today’s very real challenges. But, it’s also about asking what choices we need to make if we’re going to look good in our children’s rear view mirror.
There are lots of answers. Mine is cultural. We’ll only build a winning economy for future generations is if we restore freedom and personal responsibility to the individual, and reward effort and innovation.
If you get those values right, and have agreement on the values, the policy choices can be easy.
Budget 2025 and ACT’s influence
Anyone who’s read one of ACT’s alternative budgets knows we’d like to spend less than the coalition. It’s also true that the coalition spends less than the other parties would without ACT.
We’ve been identifying savings and instilling fiscal discipline. Collectively, our Ministers have saved current and future taxpayers billions. Brooke van Velden saved the most. Her long-overdue changes to a broken pay equity system didn’t just save the budget, they are good policy. No country got rich by inventing more complicated ways to argue with itself.
As usual, Labour and the unions responded with scare tactics and misinformation. The fact is that Brooke’s changes bring back common sense. Pay equity claims will still be possible – but they’ll need real evidence of discrimination, not assumptions. That means a system that’s fair, workable, and sustainable for the long term.
Not many MPs would have the guts to take this on, but Brooke is an ACT MP. We’re willing to take on tough issues and stand by our principles. This approach needs to be replicated and applied across a wider range of issues in order for New Zealand to tackle long-term issues.
While it doesn’t go as far as we’d like, in many ways this budget reflects ACT’s values: freedom, responsibility, growth, and efficiency. It reduces the share of the nation’s economic pie consumed by Government and redirects spending to areas that generate long-term prosperity.
Inflation is currently 2.5 per cent and the population has grown 0.9 per cent in the last year. That means our country’s inflation plus population growth is 3.4 per cent.
If the Government’s Budget grew by 3.4 per cent, it would grow by $4.9 billion. The question is, does this Budget increase spending by $4.9 billion?
No, it does not. It increases by a fraction of that. This Budget increases spending by $1.3 billion. That’s a 0.9 per cent increase.
When the Government reduces its share of the economy, there is more for the firms, farms, and families of this country to consume.
Debt remains the biggest issue for the future of our country though. Government spending has a diabolical power: time travel. It borrows today and sends the bill into the future, landing with children who are learning their ABCs this afternoon.
Our national debt is now $175 billion, heading past $200 billion by 2026, and $234 billion by 2029. That’s $46,800 per New Zealander.
Debt is rising by $2 million per hour, or $48 million a day.
The status quo is not sustainable. We cannot keep borrowing at the expense of the next generation.
Cutting waste, reinvesting in what matters
Savings in this budget have been substantial. Take public broadcasting – $18.4 million cut from RNZ. Or the end of the EECA, a department which tells people what they already know, energy is expensive. That saves $56.2 million over four years.
Then there’s the $375.5 million saved from scrapping Communities of Learning – a failed concept that pulled teachers out of classrooms.
Other examples include Kiwisaver subsidies for those already well-off – halved and means-tested. Bilingual towns and climate resilience grants funding – eliminated.
We’re also saving money by returning responsibility to Kiwis. Tightening benefit eligibility for 18-19 year olds saves $163 million, but it also promotes the value of work. Many teenagers who might have been going down a pathway of benefit dependency will now learn the value of providing for themselves instead. There will also be more aggressive recovery of court fines and legal aid debt, because responsibility goes both ways.
These savings are not all cost-cutting, they’re a change in priorities. Every dollar saved is a dollar redirected to what truly matters: education, infrastructure, security, and growth.
Policies that unleash growth
At the heart of this Budget is a new 20% capital asset deduction for business investment.
If you’re a farmer upgrading milking machines…
A restaurant expanding its kitchen…
A startup buying lab equipment…
A logistics firm improving software systems…
You’ll now get to write off 20% of tax from those capital investments immediately. Treasury estimates this policy alone will lift wages by 1.5% by the time today’s children enter the workforce.
Why? Because investment drives productivity, and productivity drives higher wages. When people can reinvest more of what they earn, a virtuous cycle begins. Investment → productivity → profits → reinvestment → higher wages. The best part is that the Government just gets out of the way.
I’ve heard some people complain that there is no cap on the policy, which might be the first time I’ve heard people upset that a policy might be too successful. The fact is that if the level of investment exceeds Treasury’s calculation then that is a good thing. Sure, it won’t be taxed as much as it would have previously, but that investment would likely have never entered the country otherwise.
Spending on what’s important
This Budget rightly focuses on the basics, and nothing is more basic than security.
ACT has long called for Defence spending at 2% of GDP. This Budget makes progress, with a $500 million boost to Defence and Foreign Affairs. In a volatile world, alliances are our best defence. Peace through alliances beats peace through strength.
At home, we’re investing in law and order. Nearly half a billion dollars to lock up the worst offenders. Because if you think prison is expensive, try the cost of letting criminals roam the streets.
If there’s one long-term investment that always pays off, it’s education.
The Budget includes $140 million to boost school attendance, and new investments in maths and learning support. We’re addressing the legacy of poor education policy head-on.
Parents who choose private schooling, often making real financial sacrifices, will now receive more equitable treatment. Their GST bill is higher than the government support they receive, and that’s not fair.
What next?
This Budget doesn’t go as far as ACT would, but we’re proud to support it because it’s pregnant with our values. It gives more resources and choices to the people, compared with government.
It focuses on growing the New Zealand economy, rather than government spending. It gives a ray of hope, that New Zealanders can achieve their potential in a place where your efforts make a difference.
That’s the good news. This budget is a reset from the tax, borrow, and spend years. We might have won a battle but it’s a long war to reclaim New Zealand’s economic prosperity.
Interest on debt is now a major expense in its own right, at $9 billion per year. Interest costs more than police and prisons combined, or about as much as primary, intermediate, and secondary schooling.
That’s because the debt is nearly $200 billion, and welfare is over $50 billion a year. Nearly half of that is pensions, which rise by a billion and a half each year as more people retire and live longer. Put it another way: $50 billion is nearly $10,000 per person. If you’re in a family of four that is not getting $40,000 of taxpayer cash a year, you are below average.
Health spending is up $13 billion in seven years, but results have been getting worse for years now. We could go on, but the point is the Government is currently borrowing $14.7 billion a year, and its plan to borrow only $3 billion in four years’ time depends on nothing going wrong for four years. What we’re doing is not sustainable.
The options are either:
If we do nothing, it is a matter of time before the left gets back in and defaults to option 1. More taxes that are tall poppy syndrome in tax law. Your problems are caused by others’ successes, the story goes, and your solution is to take their money. It will deaden our society from the inside out.
Option 2 is the road to some sort of banana republic status. The problem is some would default to it through inaction, and some others think using debt is actually an enlightened idea. The downward spiral from this approach goes like this:
Investors lose faith in the New Zealand Government paying back its bonds, so they demand higher interest rates to buy its bonds. That makes it harder to pay. Everyone loses and we all find our dollar goes towards a lot less than it used to. That is the spiral that so many South American and Southeast Asian countries have experienced.
If you’re not keen on new taxes, or the Government going broke, then you’re with us. The next five years of New Zealand politics will be in large part about which of the three options to choose. The Greens have set out their stall. Labour hasn’t come up with any policy since the election, but we can predict they’ll campaign on more taxes. Te Pāti Māori base their policy on TikTok trends, which admittedly is more than Labour is trying to propose.
The coalition hasn’t seriously reduced spending yet though. Even Grant Robertson was spending far less as a percentage of GDP (28%) towards the beginning of his tenure than the current Government (33%). That five-point difference equates to about $23 billion more.
There’s only one option left. If the Government’s going to balance its budget without more taxes, it’ll need to be smaller and more efficient. There’s four ways we can do that.
Zero-basing Government
Government has grown by default, not by design. We have zombie departments and bureaucracies that outlived their usefulness decades ago.
We need to stop assuming government departments and activities should continue because they always have. It’s easy to think of New Zealand companies that no longer exist. Anyone shopped at Deka lately? Read the Auckland Star? Got a loan from South Canterbury Finance? Had Mainzeal put anything up for you? Anyone here had a night in thanks to Video Ezy this decade?
What if we zero-based government?
Every department should have to answer: “If you didn’t exist, who would notice and why?”
If the answer is vague, bureaucratic, or defensive, it’s probably time to shut it down.
We would:
This is not austerity. It’s clarity, on what Government can and cannot do.
Make transfers fair on every generation
Superannuation is the biggest elephant in the room.
Every year, 60,000 New Zealanders turn 65. Each generation lives longer, and has fewer children. That fundamentally changes the maths, or more specifically the dependency ratios. There are more eligible recipients for each active taxpayer.
The issue can’t be ducked forever. There’s been too much ducking already, and we’re starting to look like geese. My Party says gradually raising the superannuation age by two months per year until it reaches 67 is the right thing to do. Let’s make it fair, predictable, and, most importantly, sustainable.
Government ownership
The one thing we know is that the government is hopeless at owning things. State houses? You can tell which houses the Government owns as you drive by. Hospital projects, say no more.
If in your next life you come back as a farm animal, I hope you don’t live on a Government farm. You are more likely to die on a Government owned farm than a privately owned one, taxpayers are not the only victim of Government going into business.
Did you know you own Quotable Value, a property valuation company chaired by a former race relations conciliator that contracts to the government of New South Wales? You’re welcome.
What about 60,000 homes? The government doesn’t need to own a home to house someone. We know this because it also spends billions subsidising people to live in homes it doesn’t own. On the other hand, the taxpayer is paying $10 billion a year servicing debt, and the KiwiBuild and Kainga Ora debacles show the government should do as little in housing as possible.
There are greater needs for government capital. We haven’t built a harbour crossing for nearly seven decades. Four hundred people die every year on a substandard road network. Beaches around here get closed thanks to sewerage overflow, but we need more core infrastructure. Sections of this city are being red zoned from having more homes built because the council cannot afford the pipes and pumping stations.
We need to get past squeamishness about privatisation and ask a simple question: if we want to be a first world country, then are we making the best use of the government’s half a trillion dollars plus worth of assets? If something isn’t getting a return, the government should sell it so we can afford to buy something that does.
A regulatory reset
We also need to stop strangling our economy with unnecessary regulation.
The Regulatory Standards Bill, now before Parliament, will finally hold lawmakers accountable. Every new law will have to state:
This Bill turns ‘because we said so’ into ‘because here’s the evidence.’ So if my colleagues want to tax you, take your property, or restrict your livelihood, they should be able to show you their work. This is a game-changer for transparency.
Let’s take a real-world example: earthquake regulations in Auckland. The chance of a major quake is one in 110,000 years, yet owners are forced into costly upgrades because Christchurch had a disaster. This is not rational policy.
Instead, we propose risk-based regulation, rooted in evidence, not fear. The same applies to housing. ACT fought hard to overhaul the RMA and introduce property-rights-based planning, because homes are for people, not bureaucrats.
What comes next?
New Zealand’s population will reach 6 million by 2043. That’s a good thing, but only if we create a high-performing economy that retains our best and brightest. In the year to February 2025, 69,100 Kiwis left the country. That is ambition seeking a home elsewhere.
If we carry on in this direction, we’ll become a middling Pacific Island, lamenting the opportunities we let slip.
This Budget is not the championship match, but it is a turning point.
We’ve begun the repair work. Cutting waste, restraining spending, rebalancing priorities, but the goal is not just to fix what’s broken. The goal is to build a New Zealand that’s stronger, smarter, and more secure than ever before.
A country where your effort matters more than where you were born.
Where rewards come from risk and responsibility, not red tape and redistribution.
Where the next generation doesn’t inherit a fiscal time bomb, but a ladder to opportunity.
It won’t be done in a single Budget or a single term. But ACT is committed to seeing it through, because we believe in New Zealanders. We believe that if we give people the freedom, tools, and trust to succeed, they will.
So, more than just rebuilding. Let’s start playing to win.
Source: ACT Party
ACT is welcoming public consultation on changes to New Zealand’s freshwater national direction and encouraging New Zealanders to engage in the process.
“Under Labour and the Greens, farmers not only had to manage the day-to-day challenges of farming but also navigate an onslaught of red tape and costs,” says ACT MP and dairy farmer Mark Cameron.
“The coalition government was elected with a mandate to end this war on farming. We’ve made excellent progress, but the National Policy Statement on Freshwater Management 2020 still lingers.
“NPS-FM centralised control in Wellington and elevated the vague, spiritual concept of Te Mana o te Wai, or the mana of the water.
“ACT believes the Government should scrap Te Mana o te Wai and national bottom lines, allowing regional councils to set their own standards.
“The vague concept of ‘Te Mana o te Wai’ replaces scientific benchmarks with a subjective idea of the mana of the water that leads to co-governance and unequal treatment based on who someone’s ancestors were.
“At the moment, iwi have a right of veto over how water is used. The NPS-FM requires Te Mana o te Wai to apply to the consenting of all projects involving freshwater management.
“Consenting is now subject to consideration of mauri, or the “life-force” of water.
“It has led to water users making large one-off and on-going payments for ‘cultural monitoring’ services which do nothing for the environment but add costs to consumer and business power bills.
“Is requiring farmers to comply with a spiritual concept going to make them farm better? Of course not. It means they’ll have to employ a cultural consultant and waste time and money that could instead be spent improving their farming practices. That’s what happens when we regulate water quality based on superstition not science.
“Farmers just want to grow food and look after their land, incorporating spiritual concepts isn’t necessary for them to do that.
“The broad and ambiguous interpretation of Te Mana o te Wai by councils and courts has led to confusion, time and money being wasted, and a new cottage industry of cultural consultants.
“We should get rid of it.
“We should also let local communities decide what standards work best for them. The NPS-FM is too inflexible. Standards set nationally aren’t appropriate for all catchments.
“Our diverse geography and conditions mean farming practices vary across regions as farmers adapt best practices to their local conditions. Blanket regulations set by bureaucrats in Wellington are unsuitable.
“We should get rid of national bottom lines and devolve these decisions to regional councils who are best positioned to understand the local conditions and who have direct relationships with stakeholders.
“ACT is dedicated to real change. We cannot continue with a policy that burdens our farmers unnecessarily. We campaigned on a complete overhaul of the NPS-FM to remove subjective concepts and ensure that our freshwater management is scientifically sound and adapted to the needs of local communities.
“It is time to protect our farmers from the ongoing effects of what has effectively been a war on the rural sector.”
Source: ACT Party
Welcoming the Reserve Bank’s decision to cut the Official Cash Rate by another 0.25% points, ACT Leader David Seymour says:
“New Zealanders’ hard work and the Government’s focus on fiscal discipline are paying off.
“Another rate cut is real relief for firms, farms, and families. Households with a $500,000 mortgage can expect to save around $100 a month, money that can go toward groceries, power bills, or building a better future.
“By finding savings and prioritising spending carefully, like we’ve seen in Budget 2025, the Coalition Government has got inflation under control, making room for the Reserve Bank to ease pressure on borrowers.
“Our best hope for continued relief is in ACT’s push to cut bureaucracy, eliminate inefficient programs, and unwind red tape. We must stay the course, so Kiwis can keep more of what they earn, and invest in the things that matter to themselves and their loved ones.”