Article Summary
The 2023 New Zealand budget, also known as the “Growth Budget,” received mixed reactions from journalists and experts. Some praised it for focusing on economic growth, while others criticized it for neglecting child poverty and environmental concerns. The budget increases funding for certain sectors, such as screen production and R&D, but slashes funding for others, like RNZ. There are concerns that the budget may exacerbate poverty and income inequality in New Zealand.
What This Means for You
- Be aware of the potential impact of the budget on poverty and income inequality in New Zealand.
- Take advantage of funding boosts in certain sectors, such as screen production and R&D, if applicable.
- Stay informed about the potential implications of the budget on RNZ’s coverage and operations.
- Keep an eye on the potential long-term effects of the budget on New Zealand’s economy and its people.
Original Post
Nobody has time to read everything that’s been written on the budget, so Catherine McGregor has a round-up of some of the most interesting takes, in today’s extract from The Bulletin.
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The true blue, bitsy, no BS, growth budget
For Jenée Tibshraeny at the Herald, it was both the “reality bites budget” and the “true blue budget”. For Lloyd Burr at Stuff, the “bitsy budget”. Nicola Willis called it a “no BS budget”, while the Greens said it was a “growth (in poverty) budget. Officially, of course, it was the Growth Budget, and the media analysis that followed its release focused largely on whether it delivered on that promise – and what will be sacrificed to boost the government’s high-growth dream.
To help you make sense of it all, I’ve picked out some interesting reads to give you a sense of the overall picture. If you’re just interested in finding out where exactly the budget was spent and slashed, check out Joel MacManus and Lyric Waiwiri-Smith’s missive from the budget-day lockup, Gabi Lardies’ guide to the budget for people who hate the budget. We also have Frances Cook’s reaction to the KiwiSaver shakeup (spoiler: she doesn’t love it).
Here are 10 more stories, from The Spinoff and elsewhere, that caught my eye.
Media winners and losers
If you just want to read sector experts on what the budget means for their field, look no further than our annual hot take roundtable. Among the contributors is The Spinoff’s Duncan Greive, who says RNZ’s loss of $4.6m a year in funding makes it the media sector’s biggest loser. “It’s a chunky sum, equivalent to 7% of its budget, but on some level it might be relieved it wasn’t considerably worse, given that it received a $26m annual boost in 2023,” says Greive.
Meanwhile the screen production sector got a pre-announced $577m rebate boost. “Some proportion of this will inevitably be taken up by streaming giants, who also will have been pleased to discover that the threat of a 3% digital services tax quietly vanished this week,” writes Greive. “While understandable given the continued belligerence on trade from the White House, it does tend to make local businesses feel like chumps for playing the last game, where you pay tax and employ people.
Lockup scran, reviewed
It wouldn’t be Budget Day without a thorough taste test of the food on offer at the lockup, the phone-free zone where journalists and other interested parties get to read the budget before it’s released. This year The Spinoff’s parliamentary team, Joel MacManus and Lyric Waiwiri-Smith, did the honours, adding a fiscal-friendly twist to their food reviews: The lettuce in the egg salad sandwich was “an unnecessary inclusion like counting ACC revenue in Obegal”, while the sausage roll was “rich, like the people who are no longer eligible for government KiwiSaver contributions
Key Terms
- New Zealand budget
- Economic growth
- RNZ funding
- Screen production
- Digital services tax
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