The Great Kiwi Business Extinction

Brought to You by Our Self-Proclaimed Economic Saviours

If you believed the government’s election promises, New Zealand’s economy should by now be thriving like a paddock after a good rain - lush, green and humming with life. Instead, the paddock is a dust bowl, the irrigation system is in pieces and the people in charge are standing in the middle of it arguing over which shiny imported shovel will look best in the photo op.

We are halfway through 2025 and 1,270 businesses have already gone under. That’s 12% worse than last year, which was already the worst in a decade. At this pace, we’ll smash through the previous record like a wrecking ball through an unreinforced brick wall. But don’t worry - the government assures us they’ve got this, right after they finish drafting another press release about how much they love “small business” and “entrepreneurial spirit.” They didn’t mention what appears to be a side campaign to turn larger businesses into smaller ones they can love also.

The reality is this: they campaigned as the champions of the little guy, the defenders of mum-and-dad businesses, the economic paramedics who’d resuscitate a wheezing economy. What we got instead is a clown car packed to bursting with empty ideologues and spineless careerists who somehow and this is almost impressive - have managed to be more incompetent than the mob they replaced.

The Human Cost They Pretend Isn’t There

Let’s get beyond the headlines about big-ticket closures like Auckland’s Dragonboat Restaurant, which sank under $1.4 million in debt. The truth is uglier, smaller and more personal. It’s the couple who’ve poured twenty years into their café only to lock the doors one final time, unpaid suppliers ringing their phone like vultures circling the last scraps of a carcass.

It’s the young builder who started his own company in 2021, survived Covid delays, swallowed cost increases and still turned up to work every morning, until one bad month tipped him over the edge. His tools are now sitting in a pawn shop window. His apprentices? Back on the job-seeking merry-go-round.

When a business collapses, the rot spreads fast. Suppliers don’t get paid. Subcontractors go under. Local communities lose meeting spots, services and jobs. This is how economic decline looks from the ground - not a neat line on a Treasury graph, but an ever-expanding crater swallowing livelihoods.

Why It’s Happening (And Why They Don’t Care)

We’ve been in a cost-of-living crisis so long it’s practically part of the climate. Unemployment’s climbing. Interest rates are high enough to make loan repayments feel like punishment. The aftershocks of Covid still shake us. The experts warned about the lag, that the real damage to businesses would show two or three years later and here we are, knee-deep in it.

But rather than act decisively, our so-called leaders have been obsessed with their ideological hobby horses. Cutting, deregulating, “getting government out of the way”, except when it comes to protecting multinational corporates, who seem to get a free pass to hoover up profits while Kiwi SMEs drown in red ink.

We needed targeted relief, smart investment and a real plan to help the most vulnerable sectors bridge the gap. What we got was a shrug, a soundbite and a prayer to the invisible hand of the market.

The Gaslighting “Good News”

The government’s cheerleaders will tell you not to worry because new businesses are still opening. Sure, in hospitality, there’s been a “burst” of new cafés and restaurants. But this isn’t evidence of a booming economy. It’s desperation disguised as optimism. People are throwing themselves into high-risk ventures because they’ve run out of other options. The fact that some of these cafés will be bankrupt within 18 months? That part doesn’t make it into the ministerial talking points.

Industry leaders cautiously mutter about “better times on the horizon,” but no one, absolutely no one, is calling it a recovery. You can smell the hesitation in their words. This isn’t hope - it’s survival instinct, trying not to spook the herd.

The Verdict

This is a government that promised to steady the ship but instead drilled holes in the hull and then blamed the passengers for getting wet. Their policies are a study in performative leadership - plenty of theatre, no substance and every month, more Kiwi businesses quietly die, leaving behind unpaid bills, lost jobs and broken dreams.

The real economy isn’t the one in the press releases. It’s the one where the baker down the street closes shop, the building company vanishes overnight and the café that’s been the heart of your town is suddenly just another “For Lease” sign. That’s the economy they’ve ignored. That’s the one they’ve failed.

At this rate, the only record they’ll be remembered for is the fastest destruction of small business confidence in modern New Zealand history and they’ll still be smiling for the cameras as the last one turns out the lights.

It doesn’t matter which political persuasion you default to. This is pathetic, dangerous and unacceptable.

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