- By Christopher Luxon, Prime Minister and MP for Botany
By the time you read this, Finance Minister Nicola Willis and our team will have finalised and delivered the coalition Government’s first Budget.
Let me tell you a little bit about the challenges we face and how Budget 2024 is a key part of our plan to rebuild the economy, restore law and order and improve our public services.
Kiwis have had it tough recently with the high cost of living, made worse by the poor outcomes they get for the taxes they work hard to pay.
We will deliver tax relief for hardworking people through the Budget, and we’ll do this by adjusting the tax brackets for the first time in 14 years.
In 2011, the median full-time wage and salary worker earned $48,000 – and paid 15.5 per cent of their income in tax.
Today, the median full-time wage and salary worker earns $73,400 – and pays 20.6 per cent of their income in tax.
We think that after 14 years of no change, Kiwis deserve relief. That’s what we’re delivering through Budget 2024.
Over the past few years, Government spending has risen markedly but outcomes have worsened.
So, we have made a series of careful decisions in our first Budget that mean we can get the books back in order and focus spending on where it’s needed most.
We’re redirecting savings from across the public service back into the frontline where that investment can have the greatest benefit to the services Kiwis rely on.
The taxpayer money we spend will be focused on achieving ambitious targets like shorter waits in emergency departments and for surgery, fewer victims of crime, and more kids in school and achieving at or above where they should be in maths, reading and writing.
New Zealand has so much going for it.
We are located in the fastest growing region of the world, we have a stable democracy, a beautiful environment and hardworking people.
But we need to strengthen the foundations for future economic success.
Budget 2024 will show the Government to be a good steward of public money.
One that respects taxpayers – the people who get up early in the morning to go to work and earn money for their family.
And one that thinks the right measure of success is not how much money you spend, or how much you say you care, but results that are achieved for New Zealanders.
