Editorial: Nothing in Budget set to startle

Budget day is just not what it used to be. As a journalist who has been involved in Budget coverage in two countries for about 20 years now, the sense of excitement and anticipation is just not there for me any more.

For many years journalists would scan volumes of Budget documents hoping for something exciting to report. There normally was some big bombshell dropped, but not any more.

Nowadays, governments, especially this National one, telegraph their plans so far in advance that there is often nothing new when Finance Minister Bill English steps to the podium in the House and reads his speech.

This year looks to be equally boring, with Prime Minister John Key and Mr English having made it clear that, like last year, we will have a zero or close-to zero Budget. That means no new spending and no new money injected into our economy. Sure, there will be some shuffling around of old money, but not much to stimulate the economy.

Any household knows that when times get tough it is good to focus on trying to decrease the debt, but some believe the Government is going too far and stifling growth.

The Labour Party has pointed out that today's Budget will not deliver on the Government's growth forecasts and that National is too ready to blame European economic problems for the situation we find ourselves in.

Labour's Finance spokesman David Parker said this week that the Government cannot claim a successful economy is one that isn't growing.

"Change nothing and nothing will change," he said. "But don't blame Greece."

On the subject of Greece, Mr English has rejected any notion that today's could be called an "austerity" Budget. He said it was a ridiculous way to describe what many governments were doing.

He described the Government's plan as striking the right balance between supporting the economy while it was under stress, but also planning for longer-term growth.

Times are tough indeed and in the regions we need all the good news we can get.

That is why at first glance the ASB Regional Economic Scoreboard's quarterly result released yesterday did not make for pleasant reading. It showed the Bay was ranked dead-last after "slipping to the bottom of the rankings" with a "weak" property market, limp construction and a drop in retail spending.

One sparkle in the gloomy figures was the employment sector, which was in line with the rest of the country and which the report called encouraging.

However, as we show in our front page lead today, things may not be as gloomy as the ASB report makes out. I was greatly encouraged to hear our local industry leaders being quite bullish about our prospects as a region. They say the local economy is showing signs of life and believe the ASB's indicators may already be out of date.

This is encouraging news. Even if the Budget delivers nothing new, at least there are some green shoots out there that we can build on.