Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB political editor with speculations about Budget 2025

The Finance Minister says the Budget's designed to give businesses even more confidence for the future.

The Budget, released on Thursday, will put aside $65 million over four years, for loosening rules that might put off overseas investors from choosing New Zealand.

Nicola Willis says we can't let debt keep blowing out forever - and would risk the economy crumbling away if we allow major extra taxes or excessive borrowing. 

Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls speculates about other future changes that could be unveiled ahead of Budget day.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Politics with centrics credit check your customers and get payment certainty.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Whoa Jason was that you?

Speaker 3 (00:09):
No, it wasn't me, but I am ready.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
I thought, why is he screaming? And then he started
playing songs and I thought, why does.

Speaker 3 (00:15):
He sound so much like lizard?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
That's so strange, I know, but it was a wonderful
impersonation anyway, Jason, thanks for that was jazzy Jason Wall's news.
Still z'd be political editor because otherwise it was going
to be quite dull talking about the budget, wasn't it?
And talking about the budget but not being able to
talk about it.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Yeah, I mean that's kind of It's a bit of
a strange situation we're in right now because the government
will tell us, oh, we can't talk about what's in
budget day until budget day because of budget days in
terms of sensitivity around it, until they have something that
they want to announce and they want to get it
out ahead of time. And today it was all about
this these changes to over the next four years to

(00:51):
make it easier for investments in New Zealand infrastructure and
making it easy for startups to attract and retain high
quality staff. So apparently, according to Nicola Willis New Zealand's
thin capitalization rules, which limit the amount of tax deductible
debt that foreign investors can put into New Zealand investments.
So the purpose of these rules is to prevent income
being shifted offshore and to protect New Zealand's tax base.

(01:15):
So that was the purpose of these rules. However, Nicola
Willis says that there is a risk that these rules
may be deterring investments, partially in capital intensive infrastructure projects
that are typically funded by large amounts of debts. So
she's sixty five million dollars to change those rules. So
we'll see over the next coming days.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Sixty million dollars for changing rules for I'll.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Tell you what, I was thinking the same thing, because
it shouldn't cost that much money, right, But I'm sure
that there is some behind the scenes detail. I mean,
how much does it cost to do consultation these days?
Hopefully not that much. But we'll see, as I said,
over the next coming days, because I've got some of
questions of my own on that one. But meanwhile, Nicola
Willis was all about the fiscal repair job when she

(01:59):
was outlining these changes this afternoon.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
The last government effectively left the Kitty Bear worse than
that and serious overdraft and New Zealand is now running
out of critit cads.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
So expect to hear phrases like that quite a bit
of the coming days.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
I'd say, hey, listen, so this to Party Maori debate
kicking off tomorrow, do we know? I mean, it's very clear,
I would have assumed, very clear National and New Zealand
first and Act will vote for the Privileges Committee the
punishment asert stands.

Speaker 3 (02:30):
But what about Labor, Well, let me not have Yeah,
we do. Labor have said the punishment that has been
dished out from the it hasn't been dished out, rather
that it has been recommended from the Privileges Committee is
too harsh essentially, and so they're going to be arguing
against it. But there's a lot up in the air tomorrow.
I mean, the first thing that we'll start with what

(02:50):
we do now? We do know that TI Party Marty
have put on Facebook that the public gallery will be
closed tomorrow. So if you're going, if you're wanting to
come along in person, unless you're a member of the
Press Gallery who sits in our little press gallery balcony,
you're not allowed in Parliament to watch the debate. Now,
I'm not really surprised because there have been many times
when heckling or jeering from the public has forced Parliament's

(03:11):
business to be halted. So this is according to an
email that Tea Party Marty have leaked on their Facebook,
and we've seen in the past what they tend to
leak tends to be actually the truth. So essentially what
we have tomorrow is a limitless debate and MPs can
get up as many times as they would like to
make speeches while they're debating if they want to see
these recommendation the twenty one days for example, if they

(03:32):
think that that's too long. If you're a government MP,
you're probably getting quite worried how close this is to
the budget. But the Prime Minister said today that no
deals have been done to make sure that this debate
wraps up sooner. Our informational party open to concessions though
otherwise this could drag on not much, but you're not
open to conceal.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
The Privileges Committee make that decision.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
They are empowered. We have representatives as every party does
in the Privileges Committee, and the determination from the Privilege Committee.
We support. So we went on to say that they're
talked about this in caucus and twenty one days is
what the Nats think is fair. So does he have
any reservations at all about any of this? Okay? Not
worried that this debate is just going to stretch on
for hours and hours, potentially days and days, and you've
got a budget coming.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Up on Thursday.

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Well, I just say that's the choice of the opposition
to actually fill a bus to that.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
That's up to them, so.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
Be it, and I think they probably will if it
is the choice of Tipati Marti between potentially not being
their own budget day because they're about to be suspended,
or having a couple of long debates that last into
the night. I think I know which one I'd be
picking if I was there.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Question question though, because I'm not clear on this. Does
this debate have to wrap up by two pm on
Thursday when the budget is delivered or can it simply pause,
have the budget, deal with the budget, and then resume again.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
And I know you're gonna hate me for this. I
don't actually know, and that's why we need to We'll
get Chris Bishop, who's the Leader of the House tomorrow
morning to explain these things to us, because this is
and I know you've hit sick of hearing it. It
is quite unprecedented. You would think that that would be
the case, but you never know. I mean, there could
be some quirk of the system which means that it
technically you can't start at you can't make a move,

(05:04):
a new motion until the motion that is on the
floor has been agreed to or disagreed to. So I'll
let you know as soon as I know, But heck,
it's all up in the air.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
All right, Jason, thanks very much, Jess and Wolves News Talks.
He'd be political editor for more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.
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