Budget Day: The basics

Today is Budget Day, one of the highlights of Treasury calendar, in part because it is the day before the post-Budget Day staff party – which, I am informed by an insider, is “bigger than the Christmas party”. I’ve seen the money-themed playlist that has been put together for the occasion, and it is excellent.

This afternoon, Finance Minister Bill English will release his sixth budget, just four months out from the election, in which he will spell out how much the Government expects to earn in the coming financial year, and how it intends to spend it. Since 2008, the Government has been spending more than it earns from taxes, interest and dividends, and it’s now running a significant deficit. As such, it will be keen to get back on track in the 12 months from July 1. 

The Government has already announced money for cochlear implants, sexual violence services, housing, budgeting services, and a boost to apprenticeships. You can see all the pre-budget announcements at the Beehive website. The Prime Minister, John Key, has said the budget will show increasing surpluses in the next few years, and hinted at tax cuts. But the Labour Party isn't hopeful, with its leader, David Cunliffe, saying “if the best the Government can do is trumpet a smoke and mirrors surplus as somehow the be all and end all of economic management, then they simply lack the vision that New Zealanders have worried they lack.”

(Brent Edwards, Radio New Zealand’s Political Editor, explains what the Budget is in greater detail here; the rest of RNZ’s Budget coverage can be found here.)

The specifics of today’s announcement are made public after 2:30pm. For the four hours leading up until then, English will be briefing selected media, including yours truly, on the document at a lock-up in Parliament. I am full of both anticipation, not least because I hear it’s catered and there are sausage rolls, and trepidation, because, full disclosure, I don’t have much of a head for numbers. Watch this space.