Hi John,

When I became Prime Minister, I said my Government would focus on the bread and butter issues New Zealand households are facing, while keeping an eye on the future. Budget 2023 does that by providing cost of living relief across key expenses families experience – childcare, healthcare, transport and power bills. Millions of Kiwis will pay a little less as a result.

I wanted to make sure you knew a bit about how the cost of living package will help to make things a little easier for families, students and older New Zealanders. So, here are the main points:

Making childcare cheaper by extending 20 hours free ECE for two-year-olds. This will help parents stretch their budgets a little further and reduce barriers for working parents to take on more hours if they can.
Removing prescription charges for medicines, making it easier and cheaper for Kiwis to access the medicines they need. Removing the $5 co-payment will have a meaningful impact in reducing health costs for many households, particularly those who have multiple prescriptions to fill on a regular basis.
Permanently cutting the costs of public transport for young New Zealanders. We’re providing free fares on buses, trains and ferries for children aged 5 to 12 and half-price discounts for all passengers aged 13 to 24 from July this year.
Reducing power bills by making Kiwi homes more energy efficient. We’re helping to reduce power bills by hundreds of dollars a year through the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme – nearly doubling the existing retrofit programme.

These measures support households now, while also delivering long-term education, health and climate benefits. They’re win-win. You can find out a bit more here.

Budget 2023 is practical – it does the basics well and makes investments where they are needed. But we need to do more than just respond to the challenges of today, we also need to build for the future.

We’ve allocated significant funds to build back better and with greater resilience following the January floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. We’re also making targeted investments in areas I believe are critical to growing our economy and improving productivity – skills, science and technology and infrastructure.

Investing in science, strong and resilient infrastructure and the skilled workforce to carry that work out supports every area of the economy - agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, SMEs. It’s how we support people into work, drive higher wages for Kiwis and build a stronger economy.

We’ve also locked in funding for programmes that are already working well - like free and healthy school lunches, apprenticeship training, and the successful circuit-breaker programmes that get kids off the streets and reduce crime.

This is my first Budget as Prime Minister, and I’m really proud of it. It delivers the targeted and affordable investments New Zealand needs right now. It’s support for today and building for tomorrow.

I'm keen to hear your thoughts on Budget 2023, so please reply to this email to let me know which measures will make the biggest difference to you and your loved ones.

Thanks,

Chris