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Government Announcement: Budget 2023

Finance Minister Grant Robertson delivered a range of cost-of-living spending announcements aimed at mitigating the effects of higher interest rates and inflation. These include expanding free early childhood education, abolishing prescription co-payments, free public transport for children, increasing infrastructure investment, and extending the Apprenticeship Boost initiative.

The Budget 2023 will include:

• Extending the Apprenticeship Boost initiative to the end of 2024
• $402.6m for expanding Warmer Kiwi Homes, subsidising 100,000 heating and insulation installs, 7500 hot water heat pumps and 5 million LED light bulbs
• $60.7m towards funding for emergency repairs to the transport networks
• $1b for the previously announced Cyclone Recovery Package
• $1.2b extending 20 hours childcare cover to include two-year-olds
• $619m to scrap $5 prescription co-payments
• $327m for cheaper public transport for children and under 25s  
• Tax rate for trustees to increase to 39% from April 2024

The Budget 2023 for infrastructure and housing will include:

• $71b over five years for new and existing infrastructure projects (adds to $45b over the past five years)
• $6b for the National Resilience Plan, including to address the newly released Infrastructure Action Plan
• $100m over five years for Rau Paenga, a new infrastructure delivery agency repurposed from Christchurch Rebuild agency Ōtākaro
• $3.6b to address cost pressures in the current public housing build programme and a further $3.1b for 3000 more public housing places by the end of June 2025

Master Builders is particularly pleased to see the Apprenticeship Boost initiative is being extended to the end of 2024. As you may know, the Apprenticeship Boost provides subsidies to employers of first- and second-year apprentices, to support those apprentices while working toward a qualification. As of March 2023, 57,040 apprentices have been supported through the initiative. We will continue to advocate for this initiative to become permanent to support apprentices during challenging economic times and develop a stronger pipeline of skilled workers for our sector.