What The EMA Wants From The Budget

EMA Chief Executive Brett O’Riley says the 6th Budget from Minister of Finance Hon Grant Robertson is likely to be more focused on macro issues rather than delivering much directly for businesses.

"We have taken a clear message from the material released to date that the Government is addressing issues like the cost-of-living crisis, infrastructure deficit, and climate response. These priorities are placed ahead of opportunities to stimulate investment and development by businesses, through initiatives like accelerated depreciation. However, the Government have suggested innovation will be a focus so we will be interested to see how this translates into policy initiatives and funding.

Ultimately, The EMA and its members want to see a responsible Budget that funds core services, benefits us all, enables innovation, and gives business a pipeline of skilled workers.

"We also want to see a Budget that supports modernising the New Zealand economy, prepares us for carbon neutrality, and ensures we’re internationally competitive, sending clear messages to our trading partners about the direction we are taking as a country."

To achieve this Mr O’Riley believes there needs to be an integrated, multi-year funding approach to skills that brings together four key elements: the domestic compulsory education system; the international education system; trades and vocational training; and the immigration system.

"All of these component parts must be fit for purpose and part of an integrated approach to deliver the pipeline of skilled people we need into the future. Other countries are beating us in this regard, and we are in a highly competitive global battle to be a highly skilled economy," he says.

When it comes to specific initiatives, Mr O’Riley says, the EMA has been pleased to hear the Government signalling increased investment in R&D and innovation.

"We look forward to further details on this, but one of the initiatives we have long been advocating for is accelerated depreciation, which was identified by the Advanced Manufacturing Industry Transformation Plan as something that would a great impact on business," Mr O’Riley says.

"We know that businesses are keen to invest in themselves, but they’ve got to balance that with the increasing cost of actually running their operations."

"Globally we’ve seen that you just can’t rely on steady stream of people to improve productivity, so around the world there has been a shift to use technology to help with this - New Zealand should be no different."

The EMA will continue to call for the Government to make moves around accelerated depreciation to help businesses with the transition towards carbon neutrality, and initiatives that enable us to be more internationally competitive.

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