Minister of Finance Lunch with Hon Nicola Willis (Auckland Business Chamber)
Stepped in for Simon Bridges** today at the Auckland Business Chamber’s packed-out post-Budget lunch hosted by Recorp NZ and supported by Kiwibank. It was a great opportunity to hear directly from Finance Minister Hon Nicola Willis MP, just days after delivering her second Budget.
Minister Willis walked us through the “growth budget”, outlining her focus on stimulating business investment, attracting international capital, and maintaining fiscal discipline in uncertain times. Unsurprisingly, the Investment Boost tax incentive drew a lot of interest.
While there was speculation around changes to depreciation, no one expected the accelerated depreciation in the Budget to be as generous as it was. When I asked the Minister why it was set at 20%, she said it was deliberately chosen as the “sweet spot” for “maximum bang for buck” – bold enough to spark confidence, without blowing the books.
Thanks to CEO Bruce Parton for hosting us at Recorp’s highly automated facility, and for leading the charge to replace single-use plastic bottles with infinitely recyclable aluminium cans.
(**Simon Bridges is currently 17,000km away leading a business delegation to Eastern Europe. And since no Auckland Business Chamber event feels complete without a comment on his impressive beard, I took the liberty of declaring that, for one day only, the Auckland Business Chamber was clean-shaven!)