boost, allows businesses to deduct 20 percent<\/a> of a new asset’s value from taxable income on top of normal depreciation.<\/p>\nWhen launched in May, it was expected to boost New Zealand’s GDP by 1 percent, wages by 1.5 percent and capital stock by 1.6 percent over the next 20 years.<\/p>\n
Willis talked up the policy’s effects so far in a speech to the New Zealand Economic Forum in Hamilton on Thursday.<\/p>\n
She said about 40 percent of firms investing in the next five years said the policy had increased their investment spending over the past 12 months, with 29 percent of those reporting a “moderate” increase and another 11 percent a “significant” increase.<\/p>\n
![\"Finance](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JTBY41_Media_9_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe Economic Forum at the University of Waikato.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Libby Kirkby-McLeod\n<\/p>\n
Looking ahead, 49 percent planning to invest in the next five years were saying Investment Boost was positively influencing their plans, with 14 percent expecting a large investment.<\/p>\n
“These are not theoretical ideas. These are real businesses making real decisions earlier, larger, more productively because their incentives have changed.<\/p>\n
“That matters because capital deepening is how productivity rises and productivity growth is the only way we will grow wages sustainably over time.”<\/p>\n
She said the policy would only work if businesses believed it would endure.<\/p>\n
“Firms do not invest in long-lived capital, plant, machinery and buildings if they think the tax rules may change at the change of an election.”<\/p>\n
She called for Labour’s leader Chris Hipkins and his Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds to commit to not reversing the policy.<\/p>\n
“Will they commit to retaining Investment Boost as a permanent fixture of our tax settings to unlock growth, or will it be sacrificed to fund higher spending? This government’s position is clear.<\/p>\n
“I would put to you that those who say they are on the side of growth and productivity but would sacrifice this effective policy are speaking out of both sides of their mouth.<\/p>\n
“Constant churn comes at a real economic cost, a cost we can’t afford. And so for me good economic policy isn’t about novelty or relitigating the same arguments every three years, it’s about credibility, consistency, giving people the confidence to invest, train and build for the long term.”<\/p>\n
Labour pushes back<\/p>\n
Edmonds, who is set to speak to the forum on Thursday afternoon, has previously said the Investment Boost policy is overall good for business, but stopped short of committing to retain it.<\/p>\n
![\"Barbara](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4K8G1EF_250424_Edmonds_3_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nLabour’s finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Samuel Rillstone\n<\/p>\n
Speaking to Midday Report, Edmonds pushed back on Willis’ demand, saying Labour had been asking for months how its effectiveness was measured.<\/p>\n
“Quite cynically, she released a survey this morning at the same time she’s challenging me publicly as to whether we would keep investment boost or not.<\/p>\n
“If it is working, what are people investing in, in relation to that capital? Would they have changed their minds or have moved investment forwards? The survey seems to say that’s what they would have done but we actually need to look at what are they investing in? Are these the areas of the economy where we want increased capital investment?”<\/p>\n
Edmonds would not commit to keeping the investment boost in place.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Finance Minister Nicola Willis at the New Zealand Economic Forum. Photo: RNZ\/Libby Kirkby-McLeod Finance Minister Nicola Willis is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":279639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[48,47,111,43,139,69,49,46,44,45],"class_list":{"0":"post-279638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-audio","9":"tag-current-affairs","10":"tag-new-zealand","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-podcasts","15":"tag-public-radio","16":"tag-radio-new-zealand","17":"tag-rnz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/279639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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<\/p>\n