Finance Minister Grant Robertson will need to be on top of his game to land one of the most difficult Budget balancing acts New Zealand has seen for years. Join us live from 2pm for the delivery of Budget 2023 with expert analysis and commentary. Video / NZ Herald
Tech and Budget 2023
20 per cent rebate for the video game industry under a $160 million package
$26.6m to help businesses boost their digital skills gaps and increase women’s participation in the technology sector from 27 per cent to 50 per cent by 2030
$29.9m for horticulture technology
Elevate Venture capital fund topped up with $40.5m to the $300m promised in 2020, no new $300m
$15m for free home internet for 18,000 disadvantaged students
The video game industry has got the tax rebate it’s been lobbying so furiously for - but it’s half the incentive introduced across the Tasman in July.
Budget 2023 includes a 20 per cent rebate for game development studios that meet a minimum $250,000expenditure threshold per year. Individual studios will be able to receive up to $3 million per year in rebate funding, and the $160m scheme will be backdated to April 1, 2023.
Beyond that, it was relatively slim pickings for tech compared to the A$2 billion in new ICT spending in Australia’s Budget announced earlier this month, which included a raft of new e-safety, cybersecurity and AI measures, or an equivalent move to the Aussies’ clampdown on Big Tech profit-shifting. The latter was a particular pain point for NZRise co-founder Don Christie, who said it was “demoralising” for local tech firms there was not more being done to tackle multi-nationals and tax. Christie said he saw nothing in the Budget that built the local tech sector’s resilience.
Earlier, NZ Game Developers Association chairwoman Chelsea Rapp told the Herald that despite the Government touting her industry as New Zealand’s next billion-dollar success story, it was at a “crisis moment” due to the new tax incentives across the Tasman. There was a risk New Zealand firms would relocate across the ditch, and top talent was being lured to Australia.
The Australian scheme, funded to the tune of A$1.2 billion, offers game studios 30 cents back on every dollar they spend developing a new title - with a top-up in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales taking that to 40 cents or 45 cents on every dollar in Queensland.
‘Elated’
Despite the NZ scheme not going toe-to-toe with the Aussie incentives, Rapp told the Herald shortly after the Budget dropped: “I’m elated. It’s such a relief to see that the Government heard our concerns and made real steps to support an industry that was on the edge of disaster. This will mean that our studios will be able to continue to grow, to compete on a level playing field with the rest of the world, and to become one of New Zealand’s most productive sectors.”
The industry had also been pushing for the New Zealand Screen Production Grant to cover the gaming sector, too. The two fields compete for the same production talent pool. Rapp wants a level playing field. There was no immediate sign the Government had yielded on that front.
NZ Game Developers Association chairwoman Chelsea Rapp.
Stephen Knightly, chief operating officer at Auckland studio Rocketwerkz - maker of the global hit Icarus - was one of those threatening to shift some operations to Australia.