Nikki Noboats adrift - have the wheels finally fallen off this inept government?

Someone in National can't count...

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Acknowledgement: Tim Prebble

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With each passing day of bad headlines, squandering tax revenue to enrich the rich, deep cuts to our social services and a government struggling to keep the lipstick on its neo-liberal pig (not meant as a dig at any living, dead or fictional person), things just keep getting worse.

The latest Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU) was a hot mess of bad fiscal figures, dire economic predictions and considerable finger-pointing at others.

And at least one political journo didn’t even get it right. (More on that shortly.)

As reported :

The big indicators at Tuesday's Half Year Economic Fiscal Update (HYEFU) included unemployment peaking in mid-2025 at 5.4 percent before declining, core revenue being down to $13b in the forecasts through to 2028, and a trade policy uncertainty spike in response to incoming US President Donald Trump.

That $13 billion shortfall in revenue equates to National’s profligacy when it came to:

• $14.725 billion personal tax cuts over 5 years to 2027/28

• $2.9 billion over four years for interest deductibility for landlords’ residential investments/speculation

• $300 million projected penalty break fee for cancelled iReX ferries

• $216 million lost in cutting excise/tax revenue on Heated Tobacco Products over 4 year period

A simple bit of arithmetic comes to a total of government revenue lost of $18.141 billion over four to five years.

By extraordinary coincidence, it matches almost dollar-for-dollar the $18 billion this government will have to borrow for the next three years.

That’s not even including a projected $800 million paid in unemployment benefit to increasing numbers of people losing their jobs, and we have nearly $19 billion in red ink.

As the recession - exacerbated by savage government cuts - impacted the economy, Core Crown tax revenue was $12.9 billion down from previous Treasury forecasts.

Minister Willis urgently needs to take remedial classes in maths.

Having squandered billions on unaffordable tax cuts, our inept Finance Minister resorted to her usual go-to for shifting responsibility for her irresponsible decisions:

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“In Question Time, Willis blamed Labour for the economic outlook of the country, saying that in the past five years the last Labour Government added more than $100 billion to NZ'as debt.”

The previous government may have “added more than $100 billion to NZ's debt” - but they had a once-in-a-century global pandemic crisis to deal with. The Labour government had to support businesses, pay workers, build and maintain the MIQ system from scratch, and keep an economy afloat whilst borders around the world slammed shut and international trade and supply lines ground to a halt.

What is Ms Willis’ excuse? Does borrowing for landlords meet the critical threshold for necessary spending?

But not content with blaming her predecessor, Minister Willis has found a new scapegoat:

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“Willis has defended the surplus being pushed out saying "the hill we have to climb is steeper than it was a year ago".

She puts that down to unrealistic and overly optimistic outlooks by Treasury, which are now being unwound. Interestingly, Treasury didn't support the new OBEGALx measure, due to being worried about how it would be communicated.”

It must be galling for highly-trained, dedicated professionals at Treasury to have their work dismissed so casually by a politician desperate to cover her butt from any hint of responsibility.

Who will this hapless Finance Minister scapegoat next? The unemployed? China?

No need to guess. Two days later, Minister Willis was poking the stick at the Reserve Bank:

“New Zealanders have now experienced eight quarters of negative growth on a per head basis.

The decline reflects the impact of high inflation on the economy. That led the Reserve Bank to engineer a recession which has stifled growth.”

She’s apparently moved on from inferring that State sector employees working from home were supposedly damaging Wellington’s retail sector and cafes:

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“While carefully defined working from home arrangements can benefit workers and employers, if the pendulum swings too far in favour of working from home, there are downsides for employers and employees. That's even before we consider the effects for the CBD retailers, restaurants and cafes.”

It was an outrageous demand for Minister Willis to make. As Joel MacManus writing in The Spinoff put it:

“Requiring people to work from the office will provide a boost to cafes and pubs in the short term, but requiring a captive market of customers by government decree isn’t a good way to fundamentally address the economic challenges of the city centre.

It all comes down to choice. You can’t force someone to spend money in a city any more than you can force someone to live there. Most experienced public servants in Wellington are highly qualified and can find work anywhere they want or need. Treating them like a captured market is short-sighted; the most valuable and in-demand workers are the ones with the greatest ability to leave. They aren’t pawns who exist to sustain mediocre bakeries.”

Even right-wing blogger, and owner of Curia polling company, David Farrar - a supporter of this current government - said this was a step too far:

“I know WFH [Working From Home] has contributed to the problems some Wellington shops have. But banning WFH for the public service would be wrong. The role of the public service is to provide effective and efficient public services. It is not to create shoppers in Wellington.

If a public agency decides that they can best achieve their mission by allowing staff to work partially from home, then they should be able to do so. It also reduces congestion, transport costs and emissions.”

A Finance Minister is showing desperation when she tries pressuring public service workers to buy a latte and doughnut just to spark life into a crashed economy.

But to be clear, Minister Willis has no one to blame but herself. According to calculations by RNZ, approximately 9,520 public service workers have either lost their jobs, or vacant positions have not ben filled:

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As Lydia Suggate, proprietor of Otto Champagneria & Beer Hall, told Stuff’s Imogen Wells:

…once the government job cuts started to sink in things were tough.

“September was the worst month, with a flat October and November, but things have finally started to amp up for Christmas.. we’re hopeful but a little apprehensive for 2025, but we’ll throw a lot of every at it .”

Ms Suggate fully understood the implications and flow-on effects of this government’s cuts. Economist Shamubeel Eaqub had crunched the numbers in ways that only economists can and arrived at a startling - but not unexpected - conclusion:

…the number of jobs in Wellington City has dropped 19,430.

That is equal to 11.6 percent of the jobs in that area.

As Minister Willis was ramping up her blame-gaming;

• previous Labour government

• Treasury

• Reserve Bank

• State sector staff working from home, not buying lattes and a sausage roll

• [add others here]

— we should remember that the dire state of the economy took a plunge THIS YEAR.

Data from Statistics NZ - released two days after the HYEFU - revealed the dire state of the economy as it crashed this year:

Stats NZ data shows gross domestic product, the broad measure of economic growth, fell 1 percent in the three months ended September, to be 1.5 percent lower than a year ago.

Significant revisions to previous figures resulted in a fall of 1.1 percent in the June quarter, meeting the definition of technical recession.

These were the biggest quarterly falls since late 2021 at the height of the pandemic and lockdowns, but excluding those, the six monthly fall was the largest since mid-1991.

However, previous negative readings for 2022/23 have largely disappeared.

Stats NZ said extra data had shown a different performance of the economy.

"The data incorporated this year shows stronger growth over the last year, followed by two significant falls in the latest quarters," spokesperson Jason Attewell said.

The big falls in the June and September quarters were the biggest quarterly drops since late 2021 at the height of the pandemic and lockdowns.

But excluding those, the six-monthly fall was the largest since mid-1991.

And we all know what events took place in 1991: Ruth Richardson’s horrendous slash and burn “Mother of All Budgets”.

Funding cuts for health, welfare, education, housing etc reduced state spending and services to a degree not seen in modern times.

Welfare was especially hard hit, cutting payments by up to 24%. The effects on the poorest people in our country was diabolical, forcing many further into poverty.

The National government of the day even attempted to impose a $50 per night (maximum 10 nights) surcharge on overnight stays in public hospitals. The response from the public was a form of civil disobedience, with large numbers simply refusing to pay invoices posted to them. The policy was dropped by 1993.

As a result of Minister Richardson’s austerity cuts, support for National collapsed from an 18 seat majority in 1990 to only one seat in the 1993 general election. In fact, National “won” the election only because of the vagaries of the old, discredited First Past the Post system. Had the 1993 election been held under MMP, National would have won only (approximately) 34 seats out of 95 - an unequivocal repudiation by voters.

Being only ten years old at the time, Minister Willis is perhaps too young to remember Ruth Richardson’s austerity budget. Even at age 13, when National held onto government by only a single seat in 1993, she may not recall the political fallout from the brutalities of her predecessor’s now-infamous Budget.

Having learnt nothing from recent history, her promises of further cuts to come do not bode well. Those cuts continue to cause great harm to those most vulnerable in our society.

Local media seemed hesitant to lay blame precisely on the Finance Minister’s head. As if “impartiality” and “political neutrality” somehow meant that pointing a finger at the Minister responsible for writing cheques was best left to Parliament’s Opposition and bloggers with a spare Sunday afternoon.

Stuff’s Bridie Witton gave a classic, albeit incomplete and misleading, rationale to our recession:

“It comes as Treasury paints a tougher financial picture with higher core Crown expenses, forecast to grow from $139b in the year ending June, to $162.9b in the year to June 2025. There will also be less tax revenue.

That’s down to increased spending on the jobseeker benefit as a result of higher short-term unemployment, as well as superannuation, higher debt servicing costs and new spending.”

No mention of this government’s deliberate reduction of state sector jobs by 10,000, adding to unemployment.

No mention of lost revenue from tax cuts, interest deductions for landlords’ residential investments/speculation, projected penalty break fee for cancelled iReX ferries, and cutting excise/tax revenue on Heated Tobacco Products.

No mention of cancelled spending such as Kāinga Ora cancelling 60% of planned social housing projects for the 2025 financial year:

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Which is ironic, considering National sold off/transferred over 6,000 state houses and flats during the 2008-2017 Key Administration - a fact which then Opposition MP Nicola Willis admitted in July 2020:

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Firstly, Ms Willis undermined her attempt to be candid with voters by claiming “National sold or converted a couple of thousand state homes”. This is untrue.

Housing NZ (now Kāinga Ora) Annual reports clearly reveal how many state housing ‘units’ were sold off or transferred to provide social housing providers. As I blogged in May 2018:

“In 2008, according to its 2008/09 Annual Report, Housing NZ stated that its housing stock stood at 69,173 (p25).

Housing NZ’s 2016/17 Annual Report revealed “we own or manage approximately 63,000 homes”. (p7)

After eight years in government, National had managed to “lose” six thousand state houses.

Meanwhile, waiting lists for state homes have rapidly ballooned as the scourge of homelessness worsened under National.”

And what happened to Minister Willis’ demand to keep building more state houses at pace?

“I think what we can see from that is yes, the Government needs to build state houses…

… what I would like to see is the Government continuing to build state houses, that’s absolutely a policy that either National or Labour needs to continue in the years ahead.”

Another broken promise. Add it to the list under a watered-down Dunedin’s hospital rebuild, interisland ferry fiasco, no new money for mental health etc.

Contrast Bridie Witton’s (and those of other local ‘investigative’ journalists) omissions with that of the Australian Sydney Morning Herald. Writing in the SMH, journalists Shane Wright and David Crowe compared Australia’s soft-landing after their mild recession to ours:

“Figures released on Thursday showed New Zealand in a deep recession, contracting by 1 per cent in the September quarter after a 1.1 per cent fall in the June quarter. Government spending cuts proved a major factor in the downturn.”

Compared to Aotearoa, Australia’s government took a different approach:

“Federal spending has spared Australians from a recession and will help ensure a “soft landing” for the economy in the new year, Treasurer Jim Chalmers has declared in a pledge to unveil major new policies before the next election.

Chalmers said the government had been proven right in rejecting calls for a “slash and burn” approach to the budget, saying the spending had helped the economy keep growing while generating 1 million jobs over the past year.”

Australia created ‘1 million new jobs over the past year’.

Our government created thirty thousand new unemployed in the same period:

The unemployment rate rose to 3.9 percent in the September 2023 quarter: 118,000

The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose to 4.8 percent in the September 2024 quarter: 148,000

No wonder that in the same period, to September this year, 54,700 left Aotearoa New Zealand - 27,350 heading across The Ditch to Australia.

Our Aussie cuzzies understand that keeping your economy afloat and not crashing it, like our esteemed Finance Minister Nicola Willis, produces better results. Perhaps Ms Willis should have looked to Treasurer Jim Chalmers rather than hardline monetarists like Ruth Richardson and Roger Douglas? Or even take some hard lessons from Grant Robertson who kept our economy in one piece during the international Covid crisis.

Whether it is sheer ineptness or bloody-minded adherence to neo-liberal austerity economics (which, in the UK, quickly led to the demise of former Prime Minister Liz Truss’s political career) our economy has tanked, thousands suddenly lost their jobs and social services hav been de-funded.

Her abrupt cancellation of the iReX project may haunt this country for decades to come, as did Robert Muldoon’s scrapping of the New Zealand Superannuation Scheme in December 1975. As CEO of KiwiSaver fund, Simplicity, Sam Stubbs pointed out three years ago:

“But few economists would disagree that Robert Muldoon’s decision to cancel the fledgling New Zealand Superannuation Scheme on that day was probably the worst financial decision ever made.

Why? Because had it continued, New Zealand would now be one of the richest countries in the world.

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The alternative option, which Muldoon’s Government threw away, would mean we would now have saved $500b into our own retirement accounts.

What would $500b in savings mean for New Zealand today? It is anyone’s guess and here is mine.

New Zealand would rank near the top of the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) on most measures of economic prosperity. We would be as rich as Singapore, which has huge pension savings.”

Quite simply put, except for roads (which is simply a self-serving vote-winning strategy), National does not do long-term economic planning very well. They would rather cut taxes to ‘curry favour’ with the electorate, rather than build critical infrastructure on which our economy and peoples’ mobility depends.

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But we got tax cuts, right?

From 1 July this year, we were all supposed to be better off, right?

According to one government website:

Extending the income limit for the independent earner tax credit to $70,000 per annum means an additional 420,000 additional people (not receiving Working for Families, main benefits or Superannuation) are eligible for up to $20 per fortnight.

That’s $10 per week. (Referring to tax cuts in fortnightly rather than weekly terms, is simply a weak attempt to make it sound more generous than it actually is.)

Tax cuts for those on minimum wage are not much better. Calculating $23.15 per hour, for a forty hour week, the tax cut is… $12.52 per week:

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That’s before PAYE tax is applied. So it’s less than $12.52.

Don’t spend it all at once, folks.

The same website states:

Tax relief in Budget 2024 puts $3.7 billion a year back into the pockets of New Zealanders. Tax relief is fully funded from savings and revenue initiatives, so the Government is not borrowing to fund this tax relief and it won't add to inflation.

Which is smoke and mirrors, as Minister Willis admitted to planning to borrow $18 billion to make up for tax cuts and lower revenue:

To fund the shortfall, the Government is expected to borrow an extra $18b through its bond programme over the coming three years.

Writing in the Herald, Thomas Coughlan posed the simple question:

“Whose fault is it that the Government’s net borrowing will be $17.1 billion higher than expected in the next four years?”

We are literally borrowing to fund tax cuts and interest tax-deductibility for landlords. We and our children will be responsible for this debt.

Meanwhile our services continue to be underfunded, reduced or even scrapped entirely. Meanwhile, government charges will gobble up tax cuts for minimum wage earners.

On 12 December, Minister for ACC, Matt Doocey, announced an increase of employees and vehicle levies. The increase will take employees income levy from $1.53 per hundred dollars to $1.60. Do the math yourself to see how much of your weekly $12.52 will be lost to this levy/tax increase.

That should make it easier to decide where to spend our remaining tax cuts; latte or sausage roll?

It is unclear how National ever acquired its reputation for being “sound fiscal managers”. Thus far, we’ve seen tax cuts for those who don’t need them, critical infrastructure canned or down-sized, vital social services cut back and growing unemployment.

While being in office for little over a year this government has caused frightening economic and social damage unprecedented since 1991/92.

It is therefore fitting that they are already apparently suffering “Third Termitis” in recent polls.

Not all of us are landlords, so not all of us get to benefit from National’s largesse when it comes to squandering money for speculators.

But we have eyes and we can see.

And the writing on the wall is not good for this hapless coalition. To paraphrase the Bulletin For Atomic Scientists setting their Doomsday Clock: it is five minutes to midnight for this rotten government.

The following headlines tell just some of the story of this government’s horrendous austerity policies.

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$4.6 billion should go some way to paying for landlords’ interest deductibility tax breaks.

When I read this, I was partly stunned at the sheer absurdity of this situation, and partly relieved it couldn’t be topped. Things couldn’t get worse than this, surely…

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Cutting back on IT in the 21st century? When everything is dependant on complex devices and computer systems straight out of Dr McCoy’s surgery in ‘Star Trek’? What could possibly go wrong…

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So the problem now confronting this shabby government isn’t that Aotearoa New Zealand has a nursing shortage. We have nurses. Luxon, Willis, and Reti just don’t want to pay for them.

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No more nurses? No more doctors? But… who will make the beds, fix the printers, clean stuff…?

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No nurses, no doctors, no medical IT services, no new hospital buildings? What’s left - the tea-trolley lady?

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Any reasonable, rational, right-minded person would think that if you’re going to break an election promise, it would be foregoing tax cuts or interest deductibility for landlords or cutting excise/tax revenue on Heated Tobacco Products. But no, not this government. Landlords and Heated Tobacco Products evidently take priority over hospitals…

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Remember that promise from Luxon, Willis, and Reti that no front-line staff would be dumped in their maniacal cost cutting?

Surprise, surprise, another broken promise…

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This was apparently a step too far, even for this rotten government. Minister Doocey was forced to intervene, backtracking on any suggestion suicide-prevention would be impacted…

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Eight months later, as the dust over cutting suicide prevention disappeared from the 24 hour news cycle, Minister Doocey was caught throwing psychiatric patients under the Austerity Bus.

These are amongst the most vulnerable in our society. But that hasn’t stopped Doocey…

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Another good policy thrown on the bonfire. Which was worse - getting rid of a perfectly sound environmental initiative, or doing it surreptitiously to avoid public criticism?

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Another vulnerable group in our society. Removing $700,000 from a community group already operating on a shoe-string budget is about as low as this government can go. If you’re a landlord reading this Herald article and you’re starting to feel uneasy about your interest tax deductibility - there may yet be hope for your soul…

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Another attack on the vulnerable…

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Now going after this country’s maternity support services…

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And from one end of the health service to the other. If Aotearoa New Zealand suffers a life expectancy drop on international surveys, we’ll know why. Responsibility will lie firmly on the shoulders of Ministers Luxon, Reti, and Willis…

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Even police were not immune to cost cutting demands from Minister Willis & co. You just have to hope that this will not result in police officers spending half their time stuck behind a desk filing reports to H.O. and requisition forms for soap and toilet paper.

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Read between the lines on this story on cutbacks to DoC, and you’ll find some mightily p*ssed off people. These are the people fighting a daily battle against rats, rabbits, feral cats, possums, stoats, wilding pine, mice, gorse and all other manner of exotic pests introduced into this amazing land.

Every dollar counts. Every pair of hands matters. For short-sighted politicians not to understand this is a defeat for our environment, a victory for pests and a blow to common sense…

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Speaking of a blow to common sense - this! More cuts to front line staff…

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This next one hits close to National’s base. Are they really that pig-headed that they’ll risk infuriating their base at Federated Farmers?!

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As for the asinine assertion, “Saving money, the ministry insists, is not a "specific intention".”, how thick do they think we are?! Off course it’s a cost-cutting exercise.

And then, as if to underline how ludicrous things were getting, there was this…

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This was the ‘shower heads’ moment for this rotten government. Nothing quite speaks to mindless cost-cutting than whipping a piece of toasted bread and cup of tea from a new mum’s mouth whilst recuperating in a public hospital.

Remember that it was this government that issued decrees demanding “savings” throughout the State sector. Whether DOC, the police, or the grossly under-funded health sector - this government was scrambling to find the billions needed to meet their election committments:

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And you know who else will be happy? Our Prime Minister. He is a landlord himself - the proud owner of no fewer than five (seven, until recently) multi-million dollar properties.

Which gives his Christmas message to New Zealanders new meaning:

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“It has been a massive year, a tough one for a lot of people, and a better year than the last for so many…”

Especially if you’re a landlord.

“…The Christmas season often brings out the best in us, the willingness to lend a hand, to spend time being selfless, to think about others, and to help someone in need.”

At this point he’s either mocking us, or he has no shred of self-awareness whatsover.

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References

RNZ: HYEFU revealed - Nicola Willis deploys convenient new measure amid bleak books

Interest.co.nz: An open letter warns the Coalition Government's focus on balancing the budget could hurt its economic growth goals

NZ Herald: Cost of landlord tax break increased by $800m to $2.9b

The Post: Claims new ferry project will hit iRex price, for much less ship

RNZ: Govt set aside $216m to pay for heated tobacco product tax cuts

NZ Treasury: OIA Request - Reference 20240675

Stuff: Government to make further public sector cuts, no surplus until 2029

The Post: Nicola Willis - ‘Difficult trade offs’ lie ahead

Stuff: Finance Minister blames Labour for economic outlook

Stuff: Government defends economic record as NZ heads back into recession

Beehive: New work-from-home guidance for public service

The Spinoff: Return-to-office won’t save Wellington hospo. Here’s what could

Kiwiblog: The role of the public service is not to create shoppers

RNZ: How many public sector roles are going, and from where?

Stuff: ‘As bad as it gets’: What’s going on with Wellington’s hospo scene?

RNZ: Economy back in recession as GDP shrinks by 1%

Wikipedia: Mother of All Budgets

The Spinoff: How Ruth Richardson’s Mother of all Budgets is still f*cking us today

Te Ara - Encyclopedia of New Zealand: Page 6. Hospital funding and patient entitlement

Wikipedia: 1990 New Zealand general election

Wikipedia: 1993 New Zealand general election

The Post: Public service expected to find more savings, job cuts could be on the table

RNZ: Wellington loses 11.6 percent of jobs in a year

One Roof: Kāinga Ora axes 60% of social housing projects planned for 2025

Stuff: National Party admits it sold too many state houses

Housing NZ: Annual Report 2008/09

Housing NZ: Annual Report 2016/17

RNZ: No budget for psychiatric beds despite being over capacity

NZ Parliament: Monthly Economic Review - November 2023

NZ Parliament: Monthly Economic Review - November 2024

The Conversation: Liz Truss: an economist explains what she got wrong (and what she’s actually right about)

Stuff: The worst decision by a New Zealand politician, ever

Otago Daily Times: Fears for ageing ferry fleet after govt scraps upgrade

Stuff: Christopher Luxon stands by scrapping Interislander project after Aratere debacle

RNZ: Ferry plan reveal - 'I've delivered' Finance Minister Nicola Willis declares, though details are scarce

Budget 2024: Budget at a Glance

RNZ: Minimum wage set to get modest bump to $23.50 in April

Budget 2024: How the tax changes will affect me

NZ Herald: Hefty ACC levy hikes locked in, as Government unveils review to contain rapidly rising costs

IRD: ACC earners' levy rates

NZ Herald: Who is responsible for $17b debt, when did Government drop cancer drugs, and changes in store for ACC and charities tax

RNZ: Ministry of Education puts 100 school building projects on ice

RNZ: Hutt Hospital doctors told to make beds, clean sinks

RNZ/The News: 'There will be deaths because of this' - Warning over Health NZ IT cuts

Stuff: Health NZ denies hiring freeze on graduate nurses amid union outrage

NZ Herald: Hiring freeze - Doctor jobs unfilled as Health NZ cost-cutting bites (Paywalled, but text here.)

TVNZ News: Staff say Nelson Hospital conditions are 'unbearable'

Otago Daily Times: 'Entirely unacceptable': Dunedin Hospital project bombshell

NZ Herald: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon defends public sector job cuts, Govt wants more medical doctors, not spin doctors

Otago Daily Times: Front-line hospital workers told jobs could soon be gone

Stuff: Mental health minister scrambles as Suicide Prevention Office caught in cuts

RNZ: No budget for psychiatric beds despite being over capacity

RNZ: Government quietly scraps waste minimisation policies

NZ Herald: Move cuts help to anti-violence groups

RNZ: Funding cut leaves women's self-defence course Kia Haumaru fighting for future

Otago Daily Times: Overloaded maternity system facing job and service cuts

RNZ: Fears delays in check-up colonoscopies will result in more bowel cancers

Stuff: Police propose to cut 170 roles to save $55m

TVNZ News: DOC proposes cutting 130 roles to meet Govt demand for savings

Scoop News: Govt cutting front-line jobs at Customs and Internal Affairs

RNZ: Rural families panic as government slashes school bus routes

RNZ: Outcry after hospitals denies new mums toast and tea after labour

NewstalkZB: Outrage as Wellington Hospital denies new mothers toas

NZ Herald: Health Minister steps in after Wellington Hospital stops offering toast for new mums after birth

The Post: Backtrack on toast ‘ban’ at Wellington Hospital - for now

Scoop media: Govt instructs hospital to give toast to new mothers after labour

Otago Daily Times: Labour denies hot water cylinder regulations

RNZ: Nicola Willis expects agency chief executives to use 'good judgement' when deciding on public service cuts

The Spinoff: Landlords celebrate a happy new tax year

RNZ: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon shares Christmas message

Additional

Stuff: Treasury releases Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update, showing a tough financial picture

RNZ: PM Luxon on Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update

Newsroom: How not to budget

Newsroom: Further spending cuts will be needed in future Budgets – Willis

TVNZ News: Nicola Willis: I'd quit as finance minister if my tax cut plan fails

Other Blogs

The Kākā: Austerity thumps GDP most since 1991

The Kākā: Willis' austerity strategy just isn't working

The Kākā: Blaming Treasury & Labour, Willis looks for even more Austerity

The Kākā: Austerity thumps GDP most since 1991

The Kākā: Bernard’s last Saturday Soliloquy for 2024

Kiwiblog: The role of the public service is not to create shoppers

Mountain Tui: Back on Track

The Standard: Who would have thought that austerity would stuff up the economy

Previous related blogposts

The Mendacities of Ms Amy Adams – 2,000 more state houses?!

The Bewildering World of Chris Luxon - Three Bad Polls - Three Strikes for National?

Poll number 4: Dead Govt Walking

The bewildering world of Chris Luxon - The tax rort that keeps on giving

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Acknowledgement: Emma Cook

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