{"id":488884,"date":"2026-06-21T20:34:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-21T20:34:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/488884\/"},"modified":"2026-06-21T20:34:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-21T20:34:09","slug":"pm-christopher-luxon-says-green-tax-plan-would-scare-likes-of-rocket-lab-weta-from-nz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/488884\/","title":{"rendered":"PM Christopher Luxon says Green tax plan would scare likes of Rocket Lab, Weta from NZ"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Luxon flagged the Government was trying to be as transparent as possible about expected poor results in the second financial quarter, with a forecast hit to inflation and growth thanks to the \u201cIranian situation\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">But he said Q1 figures of 0.8% were \u201cpretty strong\u201d considering the Middle East conflict kicked off on February 28, with 2.1% growth over nine months.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">April had seen the country\u2019s biggest-ever trade surplus of $2bn, with exports up $10bn in the year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cI think we\u2019ve managed the crisis well. We haven\u2019t done dumb things that other countries have done that they\u2019re going to have to unwind\u2026in terms of subsidies and all those kinds of things,\u201d Luxon said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cMy real hope is that we can come through it pop up the other side and and get the show back on the road again.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Yesterday Luxon told party faithful gathered in Lower Hutt that if National was re-elected, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/election-2026-national-launches-new-kiwisaver-policies-as-simeon-brown-compares-nz-first-act-to-children\/D3CMWTFELRBKDAA4BRP7XCDPK4\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/election-2026-national-launches-new-kiwisaver-policies-as-simeon-brown-compares-nz-first-act-to-children\/D3CMWTFELRBKDAA4BRP7XCDPK4\/\">it would make KiwiSaver mandatory<\/a> for all workers from July 2028, with employer and employee each required to contribute at the default rate of 6% by 2032.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">National would also require employers to keep paying contributions for workers aged over 65, and a government contribution would go to those on parental leave.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">The party also planned to have babies automatically enrolled in KiwiSaver, with a $1500 Baby Boost payment to kickstart their savings. \u2013 a step up from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/business\/personal-finance\/kiwisaver\/kiwisaver-from-birth-its-a-big-idea-worth-debating-but-the-details-will-decide-whether-it-truly-delivers-generate-wealth-weekly\/RGFU4LRR75BCNP3TFVHXUGNWRY\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/business\/personal-finance\/kiwisaver\/kiwisaver-from-birth-its-a-big-idea-worth-debating-but-the-details-will-decide-whether-it-truly-delivers-generate-wealth-weekly\/RGFU4LRR75BCNP3TFVHXUGNWRY\/\">$1000 recently announced by New Zealand First<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">The KiwiSaver policies were well-received at the conference, while Education Minister Erica Stanford also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/election-2026-national-targets-labour-at-conference-as-christopher-luxon-heaps-praise-on-chris-bishop-erica-stanford-fan-club-emerges\/V3UBK5B3ORECHJNHU7OKAA4NWU\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/election-2026-national-targets-labour-at-conference-as-christopher-luxon-heaps-praise-on-chris-bishop-erica-stanford-fan-club-emerges\/V3UBK5B3ORECHJNHU7OKAA4NWU\/\">received wide praise<\/a> for her education policies.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">But those gathered were given a reality check about the upcoming election, with party president Sylvia Wood and campaign chair Simeon Brown both saying polling and the outcome of November 7 would be \u201ctight\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Brown also warned against strategically voting for Act and NZ First, comparing National\u2019s coalition partners to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/election-2026-national-may-be-playing-happy-at-party-conference-but-senior-mps-futures-are-at-risk-jamie-ensor\/premium\/V6SE4ENQLVDBBAC5LHLOG7LVDE\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/election-2026-national-may-be-playing-happy-at-party-conference-but-senior-mps-futures-are-at-risk-jamie-ensor\/premium\/V6SE4ENQLVDBBAC5LHLOG7LVDE\/\">distracting children who are constantly fighting<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">The weekend also saw the launch of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/election-2026-greens-tax-plan-released-online-early-sees-party-dramatically-rein-in-ambitions\/Q2KBEETURNB3TOC6MRS5K3GMXM\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/election-2026-greens-tax-plan-released-online-early-sees-party-dramatically-rein-in-ambitions\/Q2KBEETURNB3TOC6MRS5K3GMXM\/\">Green Party\u2019s new tax plan<\/a>, including a \u201csuper-rich tax\u201d, inheritance and gifts tax, a higher corporate tax rate for companies with more than $30 million annual turnover, and the reversal of the coalition\u2019s changes to interest deductability.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EoZyGajGNiPxVf\" style=\"display:none\">Income tax rates would change, giving a tax cut to the 96% of Kiwis who earn less than $160,000. The party forecast its plan would bring in $32 billion of new revenue over four years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Luxon flagged the Government was trying to be as transparent as possible about expected poor results in the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488885,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5842,16426,8556,10668,71,2518,1426,194,807,7189,13840,100597,245184,16427,6722,111,245183,43,139,69,1118,7234,2170,16422,10269,415,4887,13650,312,6661,2069,7496,1361,2846,8238,4524,3912,245182,14443,6730,80],"class_list":["post-488884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-calling","tag-christopher","tag-companies","tag-economic","tag-from","tag-green","tag-investment","tag-kiwi","tag-kiwis","tag-lab","tag-like","tag-likes","tag-lunacy","tag-luxon","tag-minister","tag-new-zealand","tag-newlyannounced","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-partys","tag-plan","tag-pm","tag-policies","tag-prime","tag-reduce","tag-rocket","tag-says","tag-scare","tag-stay","tag-tax","tag-that","tag-them","tag-under","tag-want","tag-wealth","tag-weta","tag-wont","tag-would","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488884","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=488884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488884\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}