Simeon Brown, Barbara Edmonds frontrunners for Finance Minister, business leaders say

National's Simeon Brown and Labour's Barbara Edmonds are the top choices for the Minister of Finance job, according to labour market leaders.While leading business organisations declined to name their top choice, the Employers & Manufacturers and the Council of Trade Unions were keen to share.NZCTU president Sandra Grey said Edmonds would be the best for workers."Her approach is ensuring strong economic stability by focusing on making sure all workers can cope with the cost-of-living crisis that was deepened by Nicola Willis's failed economic plan," Grey said.EMA's head of advocacy & strategy Alan McDonald was confident it would be a National-led coalition."It's going to be a National Party minister, so probably Simeon Brown, who is a safe pair of hands and a known quantity, with associate ministers from ACT and NZ First, as there are now, and possibly a National associate minister as well."If a coalition government was National-led, Grey said the Minister of Finance should be an experienced National MP."It is critical that should National form the next government, they put an experienced minister from their own party in the role of Finance Minister."The biggest challenges for the next government are tackling a labour market at its lowest since the mid-1990s and the inability of families to make ends meet financially," she said.She said the Finance Minister should be a well-seasoned member of the largest coalition party."Given these are intertwined issues, we would urge Christopher Luxon to make sure that the Workplace Relations portfolio also stays within his own party and not given back to economic and social vandals."McDonald said businesses would also be OK with that choice of Edmonds for a Labour-led coalition."I think certainly business would be more comfortable with knowing that Barbara was the person than maybe a couple of the other options that are floating around in the background," he said.