Robertson delivers Kiwis ‘secure future’
Minister plays careful economic manager
Grant Robertson was spot on in identifying that New Zealanders continue to be gripped by “insecurity”. That much was implicit in him calling his Budget “A Secure Future” and it is based as much on a prayer as anything else.
The sense of insecurity may not be quite as intense as 2020 at the start of the Covid-19 crisis but it is stronger than last year.
Kiwis — millions with KiwiSaver accounts — woke up yesterday to the news the UK has posted 9 per cent inflation, the US stock market lost 1000 points and the Nasdaq went down 4.6 per cent.
Fear of global recession on top of the inflation crisis looms large.
Robertson’s $1 billion cost of living package, including a $350 payment for those earring under $70,000, to address immediate inflation pressures is a good one and welldesigned, politically.
It is hard to see how the National Party could oppose it (although it will) when cost of living pressures consumes its political agenda these day.
Labour’s Budget measure of payments is targeted, it gives the lower-paid more than National’s taxindexation plan, and it is temporary.
Likewise the extension of the fuel excise and subsidy for public transport is justified and can hardly be described as excessive when they are temporary measures.
Community Card holders will get a permanent half-price subsidy on public transport which serves Labour’s core constituency.
The Budget cements Robertson’s credentials as careful economic manager, for good times and bad, the Goldilocks manager: not too much, not too little. He has taken to repetitively comparing his management of the Covid economic crisis with National’s management of the global financial crisis.
And in a bid to counter the suggestion Labour has fuelled the inflation crisis by irresponsible spending, Robertson is at pains to point out the spending track will put it on a par with the last National Government’s — just under 30 per cent of GDP.
Health, as promised, gets the lion’s share of new spending in Budget 2022 with $11 billion more over two years — including a surprise injection of $191 million over two years for Pharmac.
Almost $2b will be to wipe the deficits of the 20 DHBs that will be about to be abolished under a radical restricting due to begin on July 1.
The biggest challenge for the Government in the health sector will be matching expectation of rapid results in health outcomes with the reality such real change will take many years.
Much of the expenditure will be on mundane things such a new IT system and capacity building in the workforce.
Managing Māori expectations will be particularly difficult with the Māori Health Authority getting just $168m for its own commissioning of services. To many, that will seem like crumbs. But without the capacity to deliver care, there will be no rapid results.