Audrey Young is the New Zealand Herald’s senior political correspondent. She was named Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards in 2023, 2020 and 2018.
OPINION
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One of the underlying questions on Thursday will be whether the Government has borrowed to fund the tax cuts. Normally you would not link borrowing to any single policy because the funding comes from the same pool. However, from the start of the election campaign, Willis made the link by insisting that there would be no extra borrowing for tax cuts and that they would be funded by reductions in Government spending and new revenue-raising measures.
There are two distinct views among economists I spoke to last night: some say that if the savings measures amount to more or higher than the cost of the tax cuts, then Willis can say she has not borrowed for tax cuts. That is the view of Brad Olsen, the principal economist for Infometrics. But others say that if you are borrowing more than was previously in the net core Crown debt forecasts, and you are providing tax cuts, then you are borrowing more than would otherwise be the case. That is the view of Cameron Bagrie of Bagrie Economics, and Craig Renney, the economist with the Council of Trade Unions.
Let’s not forget the tax promises that National took to the election:
Up to $250 more per fortnight for an average-income family with young children.
Up to $100 more per fortnight for an average-income household with no children.
Up to $20 more per fortnight for a full-time minimum-wage earner, and lowering the tax they pay for additional hours worked.
On a personal note, Nicola Willis revealed the special arrangements she has planned for Budget day, which involve allowing her four kids time off school to watch mum deliver the Budget. They will also be making cookies, she told Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan, who asked what special things she had planned.
“I don’t want the attention to be on my clothes. Who cares?” said Willis. “We’ve got an economy that needs to grow. It’s got high inflation and everyone in New Zealand has better things to focus on ... our Budget is going to focus on the things that really matter, not where I bought my dress.”
“It will be a Budget for every New Zealander who knew that our Government could, it should and it would do much, much more with much less” - Prime Minister Christopher Luxon on Thursday’s Budget.
Micro quiz
Name all the Finance Ministers since 2000 and how many Budgets they delivered. (Answer below.)
Brickbat
Goes to the Taxpayers’ Union for its triumphalist advertisement celebrating 4000 job cuts in the public service - especially the line “for the pencil-pushing seat warmers, and Flat White Marxists, it’s time to go and get a real job”. You might find it funny but losing your job is not a joke.
Bouquet
Education Minister Erica Stanford. Photo / Mark Mitchell
