Budget 2025: East Coast MP Dana Kirkpatrick highlights $219m for local roads

• East Coast National MP Dana Kirkpatrick praised the Budget for addressing economy, cost of living, health, education, and law and order concerns.
• It includes $219 million for fixing local roads and $1.37 billion for Health NZ baseline funding.
• The Invest NZ fund offers a 20% tax rebate on new assets to support business growth.

East Coast National MP Dana Kirkpatrick says today’s Budget focuses on the key things people in the region are most concerned about – the economy, cost of living, health, education and law and order.

It had balanced the need to be prudent, find savings and encourage investment while pouring record-breaking amounts of money into health and education, she said.

“In our region there are some key aspects of the Budget that will make a massive difference.

“Firstly, there is the extra money allocated for fixing local roads – $219 million over three years for councils in Gisborne and the many on our eastern seaboard.

“This is critical because as we know, many of the roads destroyed in the cyclone are still to be fixed, such as those up the Coast and in our rural areas.”

Kirkpatrick said the Budget had delivered “a massive support package” to give children the best opportunity that the power of education could bring, including:

• Two million additional teacher aide hours each year from 2028.
• Every school will have support to co-ordinate learning support requirements ranging for 0.2FTE to 1.0 FTE.
• Extending the early intervention support for children who need speech language therapy beyond the limit of 5-year-olds.
• Expanding the Ongoing Resourcing Scheme so every child receives the support they need.

Record investment had bee made in health – $1.37 billion for Health NZ baseline funding to do more hips, knees, urgent care around the country and telehealth.

“$1b for hospitals also helps,” she said.

“This is the biggest issue in our community right now and one that I get more emails and messages about than anything else.

“We are focused on putting the patient at the centre of the health system and we are looking at a record investment in health of more than $30b.”

Kirkpatrick said there was much in the Budget for businesses.

“Take the Invest NZ fund, which will allow anyone who buys a new asset to claim a tax rebate of 20% of the cost of that asset off their tax return.

“This is outstanding policy that helps businesspeople get ahead, invest more, hire more people and grow their businesses, which is absolutely necessary in our current environment.”

Kirkpatrick said the forecast for getting out of debt had reduced.

“We are using savings to fund new initiatives where we can.”

Kirkpatrick said the Budget had a prudent approach that balanced the need for social investment, growing the economy and investing in the core business of health, education and crime reduction.