Editorial: Labour faces steeper hurdle

Free doctors visits for children was a big surprise in the Budget for 2014.

Well, the National Party-led Government certainly pulled a rabbit out of the hat.

After dampening down expectations of any big surprises in Finance Minister Bill Englishs Budget, the Government offered election-year promises designed to tempt Labour supporters to vote for it.

The big surprise in Budget 2014 was the $90 million the Government said it was setting aside over three years to extend free doctors visits and prescriptions from children under 6 to those under 13.

This would have come as an amazing relief to many parents, but strings were attached.

National is using it as an incentive for people to vote for it this year, with the initiative kicking in from July 2015.

This was a bold raid by Prime Minister John Key and Mr English deep into traditional Labour policy territory and it will leave the official opposition with not much room to move on this issue in its election campaign.

Throw in an extension of about a month to paid parental leave and you have an appealing package for an important group of voters.

The other surprise in this Budget was the size of the surplus for the next year.

After six years, the Government books are finally back in black and the $372 million surplus is bigger than the paltry $86 million forecast six months ago.

The surprising thing for many was how generous the Budget was.

There were enough carrots in there to tempt voters and it was all served up on the platter of a stable economy.

Apart from the free doctors visits bombshell, there were no other big surprises, but enough juicy little incentives to make Labours task of toppling National from Government just that bit harder.

Andrew Austin is the editor of Hawkes Bay Today.