NZ First Announces $400 Million Plan to Solve Population Precipice With a Direct Deposit

Winston Peters told a public meeting in Masterton that New Zealand is facing a “population precipice,” with the birth rate among citizens falling sharply, and that New Zealand First has a fix. The Kiwi Kids Grant would pay eligible parents $5,000 a year, tax-free, for each of a child’s first three years, for up to three children, adding up to $45,000 a household if the timing and the enthusiasm both cooperate.

The policy is costed at $400 million over three years, funded from operating baselines, and administered through Inland Revenue, which will presumably issue the payments with the same warmth it currently issues everything else. Parents of a first child can take the whole first year as a lump sum, for those who would rather solve the population precipice in one transaction.

Whether a few thousand dollars a year moves a decision as large as having a child is, according to outside commentators, doubtful. New Zealand First’s position is that it is worth finding out at a cost of $400 million, which is either an investment in the country’s future or the most expensive experiment in persuasion the Treasury has funded this term.