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Submissions

NZ Parliament Public Finance Amendment Bill

Posted in Government, Submission; Tagged Government, Banking, Accessibility; Posted 9 months ago by DPA Less than a minute to read

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To: Finance and Expenditure Committee
Date: July 2025

 

Purpose

This submission opposed the Public Finance Amendment Bill, arguing that its proposed repeal of wellbeing reporting requirements will significantly undermine the inclusion and wellbeing of disabled people by reducing government accountability and diminishing crucial data collection.

Summary of DPA submission

DPA submitted its opposition to the Public Finance Amendment Bill, which proposes repealing requirements for government wellbeing reports and objectives in Budget Policy Statements. DPA argues that budgets should not be solely fiscal documents but should articulate how economic and fiscal decisions impact all New Zealanders, including disabled people. The current wellbeing frameworks provide vital data on aspects critical to disabled people's inclusion, such as cultural participation, health, housing, social connection, education, discrimination levels, identity expression, sense of belonging, and trust. DPA warns that removing these measures will create an accountability deficit, potentially leading to less structured attention to disabled people's needs in fiscal planning, citing recent budget cuts to disability support, health, education, employment, transport, welfare, and housing initiatives. While the Bill introduces a tax expenditure statement, DPA views this as insufficient without a "wellbeing lens" applied to it, fearing it will revert budgets to purely economic documents. A major concern is that the Bill, combined with the government's plan to end five-yearly censuses (including the Household Disability Survey), will drastically reduce available data on disabled people, contradicting the stated aims of the social investment approach and potentially undermining New Zealand's obligations under UNCRPD Article 31 on data collection.

 

Key Recommendation/Finding:

DPA opposes the Bill and asks that the Finance and Expenditure Committee recommend that it not proceed, primarily because removing wellbeing reporting requirements risks less structured attention to disabled people's needs in fiscal planning and undermines New Zealand's obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, particularly Article 31 on data collection.

 

Supporting Statement 1:

From a disability perspective, without mandated wellbeing reporting, there is significant risk that the needs of disabled people will receive even less structured attention in fiscal planning.

 

Supporting Statement 2:

DPA is concerned that the effect of this bill alongside the government’s recent announcement to end five yearly censuses from 2028 (which includes the accompanying Household Disability Survey), will mean that there will be even less data available on disabled people to support measures that support our inclusion and wellbeing society which is counterproductive to the stated aims of the social investment approach.

 
 

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DPA Submission 2507 NZ Parliament Public Finance Amendment Bill (DOCX)

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