Adam Pearse: NZ Herald political reporter on the 'mixed' reactions to the 2025 Budget

The Government unveiled their latest Budget last week - and it's prompted divided responses across both sides of the political aisle.

The Finance Minister described her second Budget as 'No BS', while Prime Minister Christopher Luxon labelled it the 'Growth Budget'.

Meanwhile, the opposition has been quick to take aim against it, with Labour and the Greens lambasting the KiwiSaver changes and the sanctions against teenagers on JobSeeker. 

NZ Herald political reporter Adam Pearse unpacked the 'mixed' responses to the Budget.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News talks 'b and joining me now is New
Zealand Herald Deputy Political editor Adam Pierce.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning, Adam, Good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
David Seymoll becomes Deputy Prime Minister in a week. How
will Luxembye feeling ahead of the switch? Do you think?

Speaker 2 (00:25):
Oh, I'm sure he'll be. He'll be excited and keen
to get David Seymour inducted. Oh, I mean whether it
makes much of a difference in practical terms, I'm not
too sure. I mean, you see listening to David Seymour
and you show there him acknowledging it as largely symbolic
is probably about about right. A couple of interesting points.
So him acknowledging that it will restrain him in some ways,

(00:48):
I think is something that's that's worth keeping an eye on.
You know, we've seen well Winston Peters and David Seamore,
both of them aren't afraid to air their a grievances
or make their disagreements known. So how that will restrain
David Seymour, particularly in the lead up to to the election,
will be interesting, you know. That often. You know, you

(01:09):
hear it from from the Prime Minister, and you'll hear
it from from David as well. That you know, and
these modern m MP arrangements, it's natural for parties to
disagree with, particularly governing parties. But I'm not sure whether
the publica is up with the play on that, you know,
whether they're used to seeing members of the same government
disagreeing with each other. So how that how that plays

(01:33):
when we get closer to the election will be will
be interesting to see and.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Give us a quick rundown of the reaction to the
budget this week.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
Yeah, it's been it's been pretty mixed and it'll be
It'll be good to see how things go down over
the next week or so. You know that the government,
the ministers will be out and about doing their post
budget road show across the country, trying to get a
feel for how things are going. You look at the
investment boost policy, largely positive reception there, you know, wanting

(02:01):
to get some productivity going the key We savor changes
pretty mixed. Looking at I think people broadly are in
favor of more saving. How they've gone about it by
cutting the government government contribution in the context of the
pay equity cuts I think will be an ongoing issue,

(02:21):
another one that the unions and the opposition parties will
look to keep alive from now until the election. What
I found quite interesting is the focus on savings and finance.
Mister Nicola Wallis's real focus on that we need to
save better, key weis need to save better for our
retirement has pushed this issue of the retirement age back

(02:45):
back into the mainstream again. Obviously it's always bubbling away
and you will have noticed it as well, and I
doubt you'd have talked about it, but you know there
is an obvious point of contention in the current government
governing parties there. New Zealand first obviously very keen to
keep it at sixty five, whereas the others are looking
to push it in a phased way. So that interesting
to see that conversation started again and will likely given

(03:08):
the priority on saving that we've heard from the final
finance minister about, will factor in Tanis Day's election.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
Absolutely, thank you so much, Adam. That was Adam Pierce.
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