Budget 2019
Commentary & reaction
Corin Dann (RNZ): Some meat in Wellbeing Budget 2019 but will it satisfy?
Bryce Edwards (RNZ): A status quo Budget when transformation was promised
Matthew Hooton (Herald): This Government’s Wellbeing measures are total BS (paywalled)
Audrey Young (Herald): Wellbeing Budget is different, but it isn’t radical (paywalled)
Bernard Hickey (Newsroom): What the Wellbeing Budget should have been
Rod Oram (Newsroom): Budget: long on rhetoric and short on transformative funding
Brian Fallow (Herald): Was the Budget transformative? Maybe, but we’re not there yet (paywalled)
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Transformation within a tempest: A very stormy budget day
RNZ: Budget 2019 RNZ Radio Special: Our correspondents’ analysis
Spinoff: Wellbeing Budget 2019: The great Spinoff hot-take roundtable
Newstalk ZB: Political commentators say ‘Wellbeing Budget’ is pretty status-quo
Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): Budget 2019: An ambitious plan, but questions grow about the delivery
Arthur Grimes (Spinoff): The Wellbeing Budget: taking aim, but without targets
Stacey KIrk (Stuff): Budget NZ 2019: Wellbeing Budget filled with substance, but has Bridges’ name all over it
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Somewhere between the Well-meaning Budget and the Blunder Budget
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): Real Budget delivered under ‘hack’ shadow
Hamish Rutherford (Stuff): Budget NZ 2019: Grant Robertson’s debt target squeezed by higher spending
1News: Analysis: 1 NEWS’ Jessica Mutch McKay and Simon Dallow break down Budget 2019
1News: Anti-poverty campaigner says Budget 2019 gives ‘breadcrumbs for people on the benefit’
Martyn Bradbury: With this budget, the Government have shown us they define ‘transformational’ about as well as Treasury defines ‘hack’
Steven Cowan: Plenty of nothing
Zane Small (Newshub): ‘It’s deeply disappointing’: Why Budget 2019 didn’t measure up for some
David Hargreaves (Interest): Our compilation of some of the key comments made in response to the 2019 Budget
1News: Kiwi punters, journalists, industry groups and politicians react to the ‘wellbeing budget’
Herald: Budget 2019: Who’s delighted and who’s disappointed?
Dominion Post: Budget 2019: What Kiwi families think of the details
Summaries and overviews
Keith Ng (Herald): Interactive Data Visualisation: Explore Budget 2019 for yourself
Chris Knox (Herald): Budget 2019 interactive: How does it compare with last year?
Andy Fyers (Stuff): Budget NZ 2019: The Budget in five charts
Belinda Feek (Herald): Budget 2019: The face of today’s Budget has given up on New Zealand and moved to Australia
RNZ: Budget 2019 model quit New Zealand for Australia due to cost of living
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Budget NZ 2019: Wellbeing Budget by the numbers
RNZ: Budget 2019: What you need to know
Anna Whyte (1News): Budget 2019: What you need to know
Claire Trevett (Herald): Budget 2019 at a glance: What you need to know
Tova O’Brien, Anna Bracewell-Worrall and Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Budget Day: Newshub Politics breaks it down in three minutes
Zane Small, Mitchell Alexander and Simon Wong (Newshub): How the Government’s divided up its funding
Jason Walls (Herald): What’s in Budget 2019: Benefits to increase, most school donations scrapped, $2b for mental health
Yvette McCullough (RNZ): Budget 2019 invests $1.9bn in mental health, $1bn to rebuild rail
Anna Whyte (1News): Mental health, child wellbeing and rail – the big winners of Budget 2019
Zane Small (Newshub): Billions of dollars for mental health, children, beneficiaries – and trains
Maria Slade (Spinoff): Budget 2019 at a glance: boost for beneficiaries, vulnerable children, mental health
Brad Olsen (Infometrics): Breaking down the Wellbeing Budget
BusinessDesk: Budget 2019: NZ surpluses narrow as spending ramps up
Eleanor Ainge Roy (Guardian):New Zealand ‘wellbeing’ budget promises billions to care for most vulnerable
Health
Emma Russell (Herald): Budget 2019: Expert says DHB funding falls short by $300 million
Karen Brown (RNZ): Budget 2019 Health portfolio: Mental health a $1.9bn priority for health portfolio
Brittney Deguara (Stuff): Budget NZ 2019: $1.9 billion won’t fix NZ’s mental health crisis, psychologist says
Nicholas Jones (Herald): Mental health workers for GP clinics – but where will they come from?
Jessica Long and Josephine Franks (Stuff): Budget NZ 2019: $683m for education a win for students’ mental health
Mark Quinlivan (Newshub): Budget 2019: More than $1 billion for mental health ‘massive step forward’
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Mental health gets long-overdue cash injection
Oliver Lewis (Stuff): Budget NZ 2019: New frontline mental health service will help the ‘missing middle’
Hamish McNeilly (Stuff): More than $1billion set aside for Dunedin Hospital
Education
Jessica Long (Stuff): Budget 2019: Not the ‘transformational budget’ schools need
John Gerritsen (RNZ): Budget 2019 Education portfolio: Govt scraps donations for some schools
Jessica Long and Lee Kenny (Stuff): Budget NZ 2019: Big incentive for schools to stop requesting donations
Derek Cheng (Herald): Budget 2019: No more school donations for decile 1 to 7 schools
Lynn Grieveson (Newsroom): Kids in school? How the Budget will affect you
Jessica Long (Stuff): Budget NZ 2019: School property gets a $1.2 billion investment plan
Paul McBeth (BusinessDesk): Budget 2019: New schools spearhead $41.1 billion capital programme
Rail
Simon Wilson (Herald): ‘Rail is back on track’: Winston Peters to front big new funding announcement for KiwiRail
RNZ: Budget 2019 Transport portfolio: KiwiRail the big ticket item
Thomas Couglan (Newsroom): Rail infrastructure gets a boost
BusinessDesk: Budget 2019: Rail projects score $1.6B of new capital
Isaac Davison (Herald): Budget 2019: Beneficiaries will get $17 more a week – eventually
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Budget NZ 2019: Benefits will follow wage growth in historic change
Derek Cheng (Herald): Budget 2019 surprise: Boost for beneficiaries from next April
Environment
No Right Turn: A deckchairs budget
Jamie Morton (Herald): Budget 2019’s environment spend: $229m to help clean up rivers
Jamie Morton (Herald): Budget: Cash boost to keep DOC rangers safe from threats
Māori, Whānau Ora
Leo Horgan (Māori TV): A well-meaning Budget 2019 offers almost half a billion for Māori
Leigh-Marama McLachlan (RNZ): Budget 2019 for Māori: Whānau Ora to receive $80m over four years
Business
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Budget NZ 2019: some praise from business, but forecasts fail to convince everyone
Gyles Beckford (RNZ): Budget 2019 Business portfolio: little offered for NZ business
Aimee Shaw (Herald): Budget 2019: Ho-hum reaction from business
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Budget 2019: $300m fund will keep high-growth Kiwi firms in NZ for longer
Alice Geary (Timaru Herald): Budget is aspirational but time will tell, say SC business organisations
Gun buy-back scheme
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Pin the tail on the donkey with gun buyback costs
Collette Devlin (Stuff): Budget NZ 2019: $168 million for gun buyback scheme – door open for more funding‘
Derek Cheng (Stuff): Budget 2019: Money for gun buy-back scheme may not be enough
Primary sector
Gerard Hutching (Stuff): Primary sector Budget funds focus on environmental protection
RNZ: Budget 2019: Climate targeted but ‘gaps’ in conservation – Fed Farmers
Other
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Budget 2019: Will the Government meet child poverty targets?
Jono Galuszka (Stuff): Budget gives little aside from Orion fleet replacement to defence force
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Budget 2019: Shane Jones’s $3 billion Provincial Growth Fund two-thirds committed
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Stuff): Budget 2019: Modest funding boost for RNZ
Jamie Morton (Herald): Budget 2019: Science funding not enough, group says
Derek Cheng (Herald): Green Party’s James Shaw questions $25m spend to stop boat people
Tom Hunt (Stuff): Te Papa, metro rail given Budget boost
Paul McBeth (BusinessDesk): Budget 2019: Govt sets aside funds for new cyber security strategy
BusinessDesk: Budget 2019: Govt raids Super Fund to boost venture capital funding
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): Budget 2019: Government cuts urban infrastructure fund in half
Charlotte Carter (Stuff): Auckland City Rail Link receives $500m from government after $1b budget blowout
Thomas Coughlan (Newsroom): Transport spend-up, housing flat
Opposition response
1News: Simon Bridges says a National government would’ve prioritised health, education, infrastructure and tax relief in Budget 2019
RNZ: Budget 2019: Bridges attacks ‘botched budget’
1News: Budget 2019 ‘disappointing’ to middle NZ, mental health funding ‘well under-cooked’ – Amy Adams
Brittney Deguara (Stuff): Budget NZ 2019: Middle-class Kiwis worse off after ‘botched Budget’, Bridges says
Herald: Budget 2019: Opposition leader Simon Bridges says ‘Wellbeing Budget’ a disappointment
Budget leak
Andrea Vance (Stuff): The whole, inglorious mess of the 2019 Budget smuggling
Audrey Young (Herald): The one thing missing from Treasury Secretary Gabriel Makhlouf’s statement
Danyl Mclauchlan (Spinoff): The Budget ‘hack’ and the time-honoured tradition of desperate arse-covering
Derek Cheng (Herald): Jacinda Ardern dodges questions about Treasury’s bungling of Budget information
Stuff: Political tempest explodes around Gabriel Makhlouf just as his tenure at Treasury is ending
1News: Grant Robertson doesn’t expect Treasury boss to resign after Budget data leak
Max Molyneu and Mark Longley (Newshub): Grant Robertson says he won’t resign
Mark Longley (Newshub): Opinion: Budget leak shows how shamefully out of touch modern politicians are
John Anthony (Stuff): National’s Budget leaks go against security agency’s advice and Treasury breach was unlawful, lawyers say
Lucy Bennett (Herald): Digital lawyer and expert discusses alleged Treasury hack and National
1News: Mike Budget leak wasn’t unlawful but it was unethical, ex-Labour president says
Derek Cheng (Herald): Robertson and Makhlouf must go; Peters should apologise, says Simon Bridges
Henry Cooke (Stuff): National’s Simon Bridges calls on Grant Robertson and Treasury Secretary to resign following website bungle
Ben Leahy (Herald): Budget leak: Simon Bridges wants heads to roll over Treasury hack ‘lies’
RNZ: Simon Bridges on Budget breach: Treasury secretary ‘must resign’
Laura Walters (Newsroom): Bridges shows how National did it
Zane Small and Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Simon Bridges calls for Grant Robertson and Treasury’s Gabriel Makhlouf to resign
Anna Whyte (1News): Simon Bridges shows how restricted Budget material was accessed, calls Treasury response ‘contemptible’
Toby Manhire (Spinoff): Budget hack scandal: So much for Treasury’s ‘bolt’ metaphor
Eleanor Ainge Roy (Guardian): New Zealand budget leak: ‘hackers’ had simply searched Treasury website
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): ‘Vicious and orchestrated’ attempt by Grant Robertson to gag Opposition – Matthew Hooton
