The Coalition Government’s “no-frills” 2025 Budget sets a record-low NZ $1.3 billion allowance for new spending while banking on fragile revenue to limp back to surplus, and it offers no dedicated plan to protect workers from accelerating AI job losses. Unemployment has already climbed to 5.1 percent – a four-and-a-half-year high.

Now, rapidly advancing AI is poised to cause broadscale job displacement within the next five years: 40 percent of employers say they will cut staff where AI can automate tasks by 2030.

Meanwhile, the Green Party’s alternative budget has been dismissed across Parliament as “clown-show economics”, “Marxist” and “left-wing Trumpism”, leaving voters with little confidence that any major party is prepared to confront AI head-on.

The Prosperity Deal – built by citizens, ready to deploy

Everyday New Zealanders have stepped into the policy vacuum with The Prosperity Deal, a costed, shovel-ready framework that:

Introduces a tiered Universal Basic Income – a Norway-style citizen dividend – guaranteeing a liveable base income for all ordinarily-resident citizens, with Prosperity Dividend top-ups for caregiving, students, volunteering and cultural work.

Funds the UBI via a legally-enforced AI Displacement Contribution on firms that sack or compress staff with automation, a Sovereign AI Licensing fee, diversified land-and-wealth levies, and returns from a sovereign investment fund – without burdening wage-earners.

Embeds Treaty-based co-governance, airtight fiscal guard-rails and a five-year phased rollout beginning with youth, caregivers and essential workers.

Pairs income security with fully-subsidised retraining and “agentic literacy” so Kiwis master the oncoming tech disruption.

“The coalition’s budget frustratingly ignores the oncoming AI job displacement that’s about to hit our already concerning job market. The Greens’ alternative budget has become a partisan punch-line,” said Ash E. Harder, lead architect of the Prosperity Deal.

“Meanwhile, people are already losing jobs to chatbots and agentic AI is going to displace them further. The Prosperity Deal is the only costed, shovel-ready plan available that can keep food on the table while we upskill the nation,” she says.

A challenge to the press

We invite journalists, editors and broadcasters to press decision makers on three urgent questions:

To the Government: Why does Budget 2025 set aside nothing to insure workers against AI displacement – and why is The Prosperity Deal not being actively evaluated?

To Opposition parties (including the Greens): If the Prosperity Deal is on the table, where is your credible, fully-costed alternative that protects incomes as automation accelerates?

To tertiary leaders: Why have universities and polytechnics not overhauled curricula fast enough for an economy where entry-level roles are vanishing?

Next steps

Full details, modelling and an executive summary of the Prosperity Deal are available on request. You can also visit theproperitydeal.co.nz

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