Most of the Budget has had to go towards keeping up with inflation. What’s left has gone towards the cost
of living and the storm rebuild.
Free prescriptions. Free public transport for kids, half-price for young adults and people on low incomes. More pay for bus drivers.
Free childcare for families with two-year-olds. More support for hapū wāhine and their pēpi during their first 1,000 days.
Here’s the thing. Those whānau who benefit from these initiatives will spend locally.
100,000 retrofits to make homes warmer, healthier and cheaper to heat. A billion to boost pay for health sector workers. 300 new classrooms. 3,000 new state houses and 300 new homes to help iwi build homes for their people.
$6 billion for rebuilding our infrastructure, climate mitigation and a new public infrastructure agency to get better value for money.
A lot to like. Hard to argue against any of it.
And so, National didn’t - not directly. Instead, they complained about the “blowout” between the December forecasts and the Budget.
Yeah, well, some things happened between December and today. The Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. Putting that damage right is going to cost billions. The Government is spending $172 million just on clearing silt from farms.
When National complains about the Government’s spending, are they saying they wouldn’t spend on the rebuild? And when they demand billions in tax cuts for landlords, what would they cut to pay for it?
It’s time National put their money where their mouths are and show us their Alternative Budget. They’ve got the official forecasts to work from. There’s no excuse for delaying any longer.
This is a Budget written with one eye on dealing with current crises and the other on the election.
Hipkins and Grant Robertson will be breathing a sigh of relief to see the country is now forecast to avoid recession, with inflation coming down sharply and wages rising at a faster rate. It does the job of showing they’re responsible managers of the money and the economy.
They have delivered help for some key voters with the limited money available - young people, families with children, low-income families and Māori and Pasifika. These are voters Labour will need to turn out in force in October.
This may not be an election-deciding Budget; Labour will be saving some of its bigger bangs for the election campaign.
Now, the question is: Does Christopher Luxon, under National, have the ideas to beat out Labour? It wasn’t evident that he did in his tired Budget Day speech, where all he could do was complain about spending he wouldn’t cut and call for tax cuts for landlords that he can’t fund.
The Budget is a taste of the election campaign to come. Who do we want? A Government that focuses on what matters and eases the cost of living for those who need it most, or a party that complains about everything and has solutions for nothing?
