Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves after presenting his Wellbeing Budget 2019 in the lock-up at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Finance Minister Grant Robertson leaves after presenting his Wellbeing Budget 2019 in the lock-up at Parliament. Photo / Mark Mitchell
EDITORIAL
In the end, leaks were hardly necessary, or useful. Many of the key planks had already been released.
The priorities were unveiled in December last year, as were the outlines of what to expect from a "wellbeing" Budget. In April, Finance Minister Grant Robertson forecast a "significant investment" inmental health services, and that's what was delivered.
Other clearly signalled moves were on reducing child poverty, including addressing domestic violence; transitioning to a low-emissions economy; lifting outcomes for Māori and Pasifika; and the aforementioned supporting mental health, with a focus on under 24-year-olds.
However, what happened to the top two priorities listed by Robertson in December last year: creating opportunities for productive businesses, regions, iwi and others to transition to a sustainable and low-emissions economy; and supporting a thriving nation in the digital age through innovation, social and economic opportunities?
Partial figures - as National provided by "Google dorking" the Treasury website for pre-loaded pages - were intriguing but impossible to interpret without comparable figures in other sectors or across the entire Budget. And how the Government would pay for all this "wellbeing".
The figures were what many were waiting for - as well as details about how the Jacinda Ardern-led Government would pay for its aspirations.
We now know the Government will spend $1.9 billion over five years on a wide-ranging mental health package. This includes an extra $200 million for new and existing mental health and addiction facilities, and $128.3m for Corrections to spend on improving prisoner mental health.
Rail gets back on track with $1.4b in funding for Auckland City Rail Link and a billion dollars on KiwiRail.
Just over $1b over five years has been provided to improve the wellbeing of Kiwi kids, including increasing funding to decile 1-7 schools to remove the need to ask for parental donations. The "student payments" will cost $265.6m over four years.
More than half of that $1b will be spent on the indexing of benefits over four years. Robertson expected benefits will increase by between $26 and $46 a week by April 2023 and this is expected to cost $320.2m over four years.
Copies of the 2019 Budget, the Wellbeing Budget, hot off the press at PrintLink in Petone. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Business gets a mere $300m fund to help start-ups to grow. Hospital building upgrades will cost $1.7b and Whanau Ora will expand by the tune of $81m.
Overall, the Government will spend $1.4b more than it had planned to last year. The operating allowance has lifted from $2.4b to $3.8b – adding up to $15.2b over the next four years. There is also $10.4b in new capital expenditure.
Shadow Finance Minister Amy Adams was quick to point out surpluses will be about $3b lower than forecast in each of the next four years. Forecast surplus of $3.5b for 2019 drops to $1.3b in 2020. Current debt hovers just above 20 per cent and the Budget will see it dropping to 19.9 per cent in 2022.
As a comparison, National's priorities in 2017 were to responsibly manage the Government's finances; build a more productive and competitive economy; deliver better public services within tight financial constraints; and rebuild Christchurch and respond to the Kaikōura earthquakes.
Robertson's "wellbeing" Budget shows how far our world has turned towards Ardern's vision delivered to the UN General Assembly last year of "being pragmatic, empathetic, strong and kind".
