The council particularly welcomes the deferral of the New Zealand Income Insurance Scheme
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has announced that the government is refocusing its priorities to put the cost of living front and centre of its new direction – a move welcomed by the Financial Services Council.
To put its focus on cost of living, the government decided to cancel or delay a suite of programmes. This includes entirely stopping its work on the TVNZ/RNZ public media entity and instead provide additional funding to Radio NZ and NZ on Air, putting the social insurance scheme off the table this term, withdrawing the Human Rights Amendment Bill, stopping the biofuels mandate, and considering changes to 3 Waters programme soon. The Cabinet has also agreed to lift the minimum wage by $1.50, to $22.70 per hour, starting April 1.
“These decisions are a start and show the new direction of our government,” Hipkins said. “Increased support for business, increased support for those on low incomes, and a reprioritisation of our work programme to shift it to the bread-and-butter issues New Zealanders want us focused on.”
Richard Klipin, FSC CEO, said the government’s plan to refocus its policy agenda on key bread-and-butter initiatives and tackle the cost-of-living crisis was a win for all New Zealanders.
“In particular, we welcome the deferral of the New Zealand Income Insurance Scheme which will not proceed as proposed while we are faced with serious economic challenges,” Klipin said.
“We agree there is a need to explore ways to best address these broad underlying inequities and how it affects New Zealanders. Deferring the implementation will allow more time to get the details right and protect workers and employers from additional costs.
“The FSC is focused on growing New Zealanders’ financial confidence and wellbeing and we look forward to continuing to work with the government on this.”
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