Government Announcement: Budget 2023
Today, 18th May 2023, the
Government announced its Budget for 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.