Opinion: Budget should be putting people first

Otago Daily Times

07-05-2025

As the days get colder, I ever more greatly appreciate my bowl of porridge in the morning. Topped with brown sugar, it's nutritious, delicious and cheap.
But not all things that are cheap are good for us.
We've already heard from Minister of Finance Nicola Willis that any new spending in Budget 2025 will be limited to $1.4 billion, cut back from the original intended $2.4b, which was itself already $100 million below what the Treasury said was needed to keep the lights on.
Austerity hurts, and it worsens inequality. But it doesn't have to be this way.
Just last week, I had an opportunity to catch up with the Dunedin-based Aukaha team - the mana whenua-owned organisation acting and advocating for the betterment of people and place, for this generation and beyond.
I heard stories of whanau in extreme energy hardship who had been helped through the Otago Home Upgrade programme and the Healthy Homes initiative.
I've seen for myself the difference it makes for people to have advocates like Aukaha's whanau navigators and home performance advisers to enable them to climb out of desperation into a place of wellbeing.
And I was very pleased to learn that Aukaha's team have just received two grants to enable more Healthy Homes work.
But I also know that in 2024, Nicola Willis cut resourcing to the Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority, which runs the nationwide Warmer Kiwi Homes programme delivered through local partners such as Aukaha.
Things are looking decidedly worse for our most vulnerable as we approach winter and the 2025 Budget.
In 1991, Ruth Richardson's ''mother of all budgets'' began by pitting New Zealanders against each other and we face a repeat in 2025.
We're being sold a stigma and poverty is the result. This is what we must confront. A country where more and more people sleep rough.
More than ever we need resources to help those in energy hardship and those struggling.
We need it delivered through trusted agencies such as Aukaha, Presbyterian Support Otago, Anglican Family Care, Habitat for Humanity and more.
That's why we in the Greens have been working on a prosperity Green Budget - to demonstrate how we can put the common good of people and planet ahead of corporate greed.
Over the next few weeks, we'll be releasing details - and later in July, our co-leader Chloe Swarbrick will be in town, and not just for the porridge.
She will be here to talk specifically about what a Green-led government would do for Ōtepoti Dunedin and the Deep South and how we can support wellbeing in partnership with providers, and to hear from the community.
We can do things differently. We just have to choose something different.