Budget 2020 Live Special: The Government will borrow an extra $50 billion in the June 2021 fiscal year to mitigate the hit from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Government's Budget has contained the single biggest spending package in New Zealand's history, as the country welcomes in alert level 2 with another day of no new coronavirus cases. Get all the important news and read the full stories in the links below.
Mall carparks were busy once more as level 2 arrived. Photo / Dean Purcell.
• The chances of coronavirus community transmission in New Zealand is now considered "very low" by health authorities, but members of the public are being warned not to start getting complacent and to keep in mind the virus may still be out there among communities. This comes as, for the third consecutive day, there are no new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand.
Listen live to Newstalk ZB's coronavirus coverage
• A bill giving police sweeping powers to potentially enter homes without warrants while enforcing Covid-19 rules has passed. Police Commissioner Andrew Coster says his frontline staff will use common sense and discretion when using what he described as the "remarkable" powers granted to police to enforce Covid-19 health rules.
• Amid calls for a national contact tracing app, experts have warned we shouldn't be placing all of our hopes on a smartphone solution when it comes to tracking down people potentially exposed to Covid-19.
The Budget
• The Government will spend a mammoth $50 billion on its Covid-19 recovery plan in a bid to save almost 140,000 jobs nationwide. It's the single biggest spending package in New Zealand's history. But to pay for the recovery, Government debt will more than double to $200 billion and there are deficits in the tens of billions of dollars for years to come – something National Party leader Simon Bridges labelled a "tsunami of debt". Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said there was nothing usual about Covid-19 and that meant an extraordinary response in its Budget.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Greens leader James Shaw and Finance Minister Grant Robertson walk to the House during Budget 2020 delivery day. Photo / Pool
• The wage subsidy scheme has been extended by a further eight weeks as the Government looks to limit the economic damage caused by Covid-19. Up to a further $3.2 billion has been poured into the scheme, taking the total Government spending on the programme to almost $14 billion.
• Three rest home residents are dead, and seven nurses who looked after them at Waitakere Hospital have been infected with Covid-19. Kirsty Johnston reports on what went wrong.
Around the world
• The impact of coronavirus on overseas travel may be worse than expected, with an international airline boss predicting things won't be normal until 2023.
• Kiwi Sarai Bareman is attempting to navigate a path out of coronavirus for the world's biggest female sport, and is doing it from her dining room.
The last words
• The Herald experts have weighed in on today's Budget. Audrey Young says anyone expecting Grant Robertson to produce a detailed plan for economic recovery from the Covid crisis was simply setting him up for failure, Hamish Rutherford writes that the Budget contains a sea of red, to save New Zealand from even worse, while Liam Dann argues that Robertson nailed the Budget balancing act - but that might be the easy bit.
