Building case for big spend in Budget
New Zealand’s public health system is in full blown crisis, says the Government.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has made the admission alongside Finance Minister Grant Robertson as the Government begins to build a case for big spending in some areas in the Budget, while lowering expectations in other key areas.
In an announcement designed to manage expectations, Ardern said the Government would be going out of its way to paint a ‘‘vivid picture’’ of why it needed to reinvest in some services.
The scale of the strain on the health system was far worse than Labour anticipated when in Opposition and Ardern said expectations had to be dampened.
‘‘I had to dampen down mine when I saw the state that the last government has left core services like health and like education in. I’ve always said from the beginning, we thought it would be bad.
‘‘We didn’t know it would be this bad,’’ she said.
‘‘We have two [district health boards] from memory that broke even, two that were in the black and the remainder facing deficits.’’
The Government has had to make some ‘‘hard decisions’’, she said.
That likely meant there would be big spends in some areas, but others could look to fall short of some expectations that were set during the election campaign.
Robertson would not put a dollar figure on total financial shortfalls across health, education and corrections, but said there was a $14 billion capital works injection necessary in health alone, over a 10-year period, and $10b would have to come from the Government.
‘‘The main focus of Budget 2018 is the beginning of our plan to rebuild quality public services that keep our nation strong, particularly health and education,’’ said Ardern.
It could not be managed in a single Budget, Robertson said.
‘‘One Budget cannot make up for nine years of neglect.’’
However, the Government would not break from its Fiscal Responsibility Rules, signed with the Greens ahead of the election.
Robertson will deliver his maiden Budget on Thursday, May 17.