New Conservative is committed to the following principles of economic governance:
- Economic growth must come from a broad base of sectors, which is ultimately the source for pulling people out of poverty.
- Government must run a balanced budget, pay down debt, and save for the future.
- Families must be allowed to retain more of their incomes to provide for themselves and each generation should pay its own way.
- Welfare support must never entrap people in benefit dependency.
New Conservative recognises the vital importance of a productive and resilient economy. To further that end, we will encourage New Zealand’s world-renowned entrepreneurial spirit and boost small businesses by cutting job-killing regulations. We will address bureaucratic waste and excessive government spending that is robbing the nation of greater prosperity. We will pursue economic nationalism to ensure we are more resistant to global shocks.
A sustainable building industry must be established to not only meet the housing crisis, but also ongoing development of our housing and building infrastructure. A balance must be struck between the important economic benefit that immigration brings and the welfare of those who already call New Zealand home.
Our country continues to import and use significant quantities of oil, gas, and minerals. New Conservative will practise proper stewardship (kaitiakitanga) of our treasures (taonga) by opening up the drilling and mining sectors to ensure that we achieve energy independence and meet the energy demands of the future.
New Conservative will overhaul the income tax system by replacing the bottom bracket with a $20,000 tax-free threshold.
Housing Crisis
New Conservative recognises that housing availability, affordability, and quality all need to be addressed on multiple fronts.
There is no simple solution to this critical area and we need a number of initiatives. Our primary focus is on these 5 key areas.
Supply Management: We will address the shortfall in housing supply on various fronts including:
- Resource Management Act and local government reform
- bringing more unproductive land to the market
- time-frames for undeveloped land to prevent pure land-banking
- improved and sustainable regional growth
- pre-consented plans
- review of taxation levers
Demand Management: We will find innovative ways to manage the demand on housing, such as initiatives to help New Zealand families into their own homes. New Conservative would look at the use of levers like tax incentives, Kiwisaver changes, rent-then-buy schemes, shared equity models, reducing immigration, and moving government departments to regional areas. We would introduce Stamp Duty on property purchases by non-citizens, and on the third and any subsequent purchases by local investors.
Cost Factors: Cost is creating one of the single biggest hurdles to home ownership. New Conservative will seek to change regulations to allow more pre-fabrication. We will also encourage and develop greater efficiency in property markets, and remove unnecessary regulation and compliance costs, particularly in residential housing. To enable housing suppliers to gear up and build more houses for any government-initiated building programme, the government would have to provide surety of demand.
Skill Shortfalls: We will introduce trade training at Year 9 to give young people the opportunity to choose a trade as a career path during their education. They will be qualified sooner and it will help keep them in the education system. There needs to be a defined focus on encouraging the trades as a positive career choice with good financial outcomes.
Building Regulation: Many areas can be addressed here such as:
- better standards regulation
- more use of public/private partnerships
- allowing materials certified in western developed nations to be used without additional certification
- using building methods that are time-proven and reduce maintenance moving forward
- streamlining the codemark process to allow greater competition
All residential construction will require a minimum 10-year guarantee. This will incentivise insurers to weed out poor builders and give homeowners peace of mind. Insured builders and designers should be allowed to self-approve some work.