Budget Archive

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  Bill English’s rapture Budget – illustrated version - by frog

  
  
  
  I’m not sure if I should feel flattered or annoyed that Guy Body has seized upon my comparison last Friday between Harold Camping’s Rapture predictions and Bill English’s Budget predictions as the theme for today’s NZ Herald cartoon: Anyway, we’ve survived the first one.  Just one to go! read more
  May 23, 2011 8:48 am - 1 Comment
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  Challenging global military spending - by Keith Locke

  
  
  
    The Global Day of Action Against Military Spending is being marked today, April 12th. Last year the world military budget was US$1,630 billion, with America well ahead of other nations. It spent US$698 billion, six times its nearest rival China on US$114 billion. Adding to the scandal, the US spends 20 times as much [...] read more
  April 12, 2011 10:29 pm - 8 Comments
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  Throwing more than toys out of the cot – Cuts to ECE! - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  Bill English and John Key went on and on in the Budget speeches about a fair budget but I am not sure that child poverty was an expression that crossed their lips. We heard a lot of ball park figures about education and health and personal tax cuts. Children don’t pay taxes or vote so [...] read more
  May 21, 2010 10:21 am - 49 Comments
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  Podcast: Mind the Gap! - by frog

  
  
  
  On Monday, Green Party Co-leader Metiria Turei launched Mind the Gap, the Green Party’s eight-point Budget strategy to combat growing inequality in New Zealand. In this podcast, Metiria talks us through Mind the Gap – what’s behind it, what’s in it, and why it’s needed. read more
  May 20, 2010 9:25 am - 3 Comments
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  Inequality in Aotearoa: Mind the Gap! - by Metiria Turei

  
  
  
  As you know, I’ve been writing a series of blog posts about Inequality in Aotearoa during April and May. I’ve also been working on ideas for solutions to the growing gap between rich and poor in New Zealand, and this morning I’ve launched a major package of eight practical ideas to reduce inequality. Here I [...] read more
  May 17, 2010 3:43 pm - 139 Comments
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  Could progressive electricity pricing cut inequality? - by frog

  
  
  
  Metiria has just launched the Green Party’s Mind the Gap package, the third instalment of our Green New Deal and frankly, a better way to prioritise spending in this week’s budget. This year’s package focuses on tackling inequality. read more
  May 17, 2010 2:26 pm - 8 Comments
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  Bread and circuses: healthcare and ideology - by Kevin Hague

  
  
  
  The Health Select Committee today heard evidence from the NZ Surgical Hospitals Association (essentially the private hospitals club). Essentially they were pitching for Government to contract more elective surgery to them and also to encourage more New Zealanders to take out private health insurance, by giving tax breaks for this. One unexpected feature of their [...] read more
  June 24, 2009 6:14 pm - 11 Comments
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  Dear Diary, should I Think Big or Forward? - by frog

  
  
  
  My Kiwidiary today remembers this blast from the past: [On this day] Derek Quigley, at the Young Nationals Conference, speaks against the ‘Think Big’ programme, 1982. Muldoon announced Think Big in 1979, aiming to develop heavy industry. It carries the industrial era’s unsustainable style which wreaked eco-havoc, but also produced a legendary new skate park [...] read more
  June 7, 2009 10:44 pm - 18 Comments
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  Enviroschools and the Budget – Sabotaging Success - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  Two weeks I went to a hui of environmental educators working with the Enviroschools programme throughout the country. They were so vibrant and so excited about their ever expanding programmes throughout kura kaupapa and many other schools throughout Aotaeraoa. They were also focused on their “regeneration” project which involves students who have left school but [...] read more
  June 4, 2009 2:36 pm - 55 Comments
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  Weaving and Moroccan Cooking Are Not Useful? - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  The Minister of Education has seen fit to cut money in the Budget for adult and community education funding except for courses related to literacy and numeracy. Programmes offered through secondary schools are set to disappear after an 80% cut. She picked out weaving, salsa dancing and Moroccan courses provided by community education programmes as [...] read more
  June 3, 2009 3:06 pm - 57 Comments
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  Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow… - by Catherine Delahunty

  
  
  
  After 20 years it’s high time to reflect on the value of the “Tomorrow Schools” model and exactly who has benefited? This is particularly important when the new Government and especially their coalition partner are making worrying noises about reform of the public system. “Tomorrow’s Schools” was a Labour baby and ostensibly an opportunity for [...] read more
  May 29, 2009 12:10 pm - 21 Comments
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  Warm Healthy Homes Confirmed - by frog

  
  
  
  Ok, here’s the facts on the home insulation fund.  It’s effectively a bigger, faster programme than the one the Greens negotiated last year with Labour. It’s $323 million over four years.  Clever readers have deduced that $323m does not equal $1billion, but as Russel explained in the House this afternoon: there is only enough money [...] read more
  May 28, 2009 3:40 pm - 41 Comments
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  Insulating the Budget - by frog

  
  
  
  Well, it’s happened again. Budget stuff has leaked from Wellington, stealing the thunder of Greens and Tories alike ahead of tomorrow’s announcement. No one is immune, and all sorts of theories can develop about who may gain an advantage by leaking such stuff. First of all, after a thorough hop around the corridors of power, [...] read more
  May 27, 2009 5:43 pm - 23 Comments
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  Focus on Pharmac - by frog

  
  
  
  Rarely are so few asked to do so much with so little for the benefit of so many, who are ungrateful. That’s how I would describe Pharmac’s calling. Today’s Sunday Star Times spends an inordinate amount of column inches discussing the challenges Pharmac faces. Or does it? The unattributed comment piece on A11, “Pharmac’s $635 [...] read more
  November 30, 2008 1:45 pm - 37 Comments
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  Russel’s first Oral Question in the House today… - by frog

  
  
  
  To: Annette King, Minister of Transport Can she confirm that yesterday the Government announced in this year’s National Land Transport Program a public transport budget of $325 million and a roading budget of $1.94 billion, in other words six times more for roads than for public transport? I’ll report on the answer later today. Photo [...] read more
  July 1, 2008 10:48 am - 20 Comments
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  Politics in the pub with Russel - by frog

  
  
  
  I headed along last night to listen to Russel at his Politics in the Pub Budget Night Debrief at Bar Edward in Newtown.  It was an informal, and often witty analysis of a budget that failed to take into account any of its surrounding environmental and societal circumstances – any that is except for an [...] read more
  May 23, 2008 7:51 am - 32 Comments
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  Jeanette’s budget speech - by frog

  
  
  
  Jeanette followed on from a number of convoluted speeches full of numbers, figures and backslapping about tax cuts. We are living in a moment in history, in a generation where the people who have the power have a clear choice. Either they face inconvenient truths that are so obvious around us, or they leave it [...] read more
  May 22, 2008 5:13 pm - 28 Comments
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  Frog’s Oil BEFU - by frog

  
  
  
  It has come to my attention that Treasury is not really interested in making an effort to forecast oil prices, despite the fact that the rest of New Zealand places huge faith in the Budget Economic Forecast Update, or BEFU. Historically I have been reluctant to make any forecasts, but today, I am going to [...] read more
  May 21, 2008 10:22 am - 40 Comments
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  The Minister of Racing’s $9 million stake - by frog

  
  
  
  Today the Greens have oral question number 11 in the House and it will be coming from Sue Bradford to the Minister for Racing: Why is the Government putting 9 million dollars into high-stakes racing in this week’s budget, given that in 2006 the racing industry received a tax windfall worth approximately 32 million dollars [...] read more
  May 20, 2008 10:58 am - 15 Comments
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  Getting chickens off the drugs - by frog

  
  
  
  It seems that if you keep a rather large number of chickens inside a building and afford each chicken roughly about an A4 piece of paper’s worth of space, and feed them a very limited diet, those chickens occasionally get sick.  At this point you’ve really got two choices – you could knock down the [...] read more
  May 13, 2008 3:13 pm - 14 Comments