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Scoop
24-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Rabbits, Switch-Ups And Highway Robbery: Politicians, Economists React To Budget 25
Article – RNZ Every politician, economist and their dog had their own nickname for the document dubbed the 'Growth Budget' by the government. , Political Reporter Budget Day is a bit of a whirlwind. Opposition politicians, journalists and economists have just three-and-a-half hours to pore over the books, before presenting reports and analysis on what's on offer, what it means to people and, of course, come up with a hot take or two. The government found $2.7 billion a year through its changes to pay equity, cut its own contributions to KiwiSaver, told 18 and 19 year olds it would no longer pay them to sit on the couch and introduced a new Investment Boost tax incentive, which is tipped to increase New Zealand's GDP by 1 percent over the next 20 years. It was dubbed the 'Growth Budget' by the government, although the finance minister was fond of calling it the 'No BS Budget'. Economists and MPs had their own nicknames and thoughts to share. Bagrie Economics managing director Cameron Bagrie called it the 'Rabbit Budget', as the pay equity changes allowed the government to pull the rabbit out of the hat and generate savings. 'Looking forward, we need a few more rabbits to pull out of a few more hats in the 2026 and 2027 Budgets, because we're still a long way away from returning to surplus.' The books are not expected to return to surplus until 2029 and, even then, it will be a modest surplus of $200 million. Bagrie said New Zealand still had not seen the hard yards. 'The savings are all backloaded into 2027, 2028 and 2029, and those savings to be delivered are going to require that we need tight expenditure control in the 2026, 2027 and 2028 Budgets. We know that spending pressures, including the funding of the defence force, are going to be pretty intense.' Council of Trade Unions economist Craig Renney, who is also on Labour's policy council, said it was a 'Highway Robbery Budget' with the changes to pay equity. 'It's not a Budget that's delivering for working people and it doesn't appear to be a Budget with working people in mind,' he said. 'We're taking money straight out of the pockets of low-income workers. 'We're taking benefits off 18-19 year olds, we're taking money from the education budget. We're taking money off Vote Māori Development, Vote Pacific Peoples and we're spending it on defence.' On the KiwiSaver changes, Renney wanted assurances that employers would not put pressure on low income workers to deliberately take the 3 percent level, so their own costs did not go up. He praised the Investment Boost scheme, saying New Zealand was 'way behind' in capital investment and the state had a big role to play. Baucher Consulting tax expert Terry Baucher was also a fan of the scheme, saying it was more generous than many predicted. He was less impressed with what was in the Budget for low-income families. 'The government has increased the Working for Families threshold to $44,900, but that's still below what someone on minimum wage would earn annually and it's $10,000 lower than it should be, if it had been increased in line with inflation since June 2018,' he said. 'Arguably, you could say that the burden for that Investment Boost is being paid by low-income workers and I don't agree with that. It's a disappointment in that regard.' He said New Zealand faced a 'demographic crunch', and there was not enough in the Budget to encourage families to work and raise their children in New Zealand. 'We're taking money from our younger working people to give to older, richer property-owning people and long-term, in my view, that's not a recipe for a growth economy.' Baucher said he understood why the government was means-testing KiwiSaver at higher levels, although did not support reducing the government contributions overall. Inequality researcher Max Rashbrooke said the KiwiSaver changes were mean-spirited. 'It is the state increasingly saying, 'If you're going to save, you're on your own. We're putting the burden on you to save out of your pay and we're putting the burden on your employer, rather than collectively, the state, trying to ensure that people are saving well for their retirement'.' Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said it was the 'Switch-up Budget' as the government tried to spend more, while cutting back. 'There are some big trade-offs that the government has had to make in Budget 2025 and I think, definitely for some groups, they'll be saying that's probably the wrong trade-off,' he said. Olsen was 'fairly relaxed' on the KiwiSaver changes and did not believe the current government contribution rate stimulated a huge amount of further investment that otherwise would not happen. 'I don't think it'll shift the dial in terms of more or less investment from Kiwis by getting rid of that government contribution, but by increasing both the employer and employee contribution rates, that will stimulate more savings over time and I think that's positive.' He was also onboard with cutting the government contribution rate entirely for those earning more than $180,000, saying the government needed to get its books in order and it did not need to give those earning good money that much support. New Zealand Initiative chief economist Eric Crampton said the government was making slow progress towards the smaller structural deficit in 2029 and needed to sort it before the demographic changes really started to bite in the 2030s. 'At some point, we have to wonder about the fiscal responsibility provisions in the Public Finance Act matter, because those effectively say you should not be running structural deficits for a decade, and we will have been running structural deficits for a decade. The ones during Covid were excusable – now, not so much.' Crampton agreed that greater means-testing and targeted assistance to those in need made sense. '[It] can help towards fiscal consolidation,' he said. 'I don't need to be getting a subsidy towards my KiwiSaver. 'It's better to target these sorts of things. Similarly, a bit tighter targeting in Working for Families can make a lot of sense. 'It's good that they are stopping the inflation indexing of repayment thresholds for student loans. It would be nice if they took a few other measures.' He pointed to re-instating interest on student loans as a measure that the government could take, while at the same time, increasing scholarships that are means-tested. No commitment from Labour on $12.8b pay equity return Fresh from delivering their speeches to the House, a rolling maul of MPs from government and opposition came across Parliament's tiles to take questions. First up was Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who continued to denounce the pay equity changes, particularly now there was a number put on them. He committed to reversing the changes, should Labour return to the government benches, but couldn't be nailed down on the exact amount. Primarily, that was because he was unsure how the government had arrived at its figures. 'They still haven't released their calculations on how they arrived at the savings they've delivered today, so I can't give you numbers,' he said. 'I can give you the principle, which is the principle is very clear for us. We don't believe that women should be paid less than men.' He also said the Working for Families changes were 'a measly amount, won't even pay for a block of butter' and the government cutting its KiwiSaver contributions 'raided the future retirement savings' of New Zealanders. 'I think most Kiwi families will be feeling that any advantage they got from tax cuts last year has been well and truly absorbed by increased costs in other areas,' Hipkins said. 'Their power bills are still going up, their rents are still going up. 'Prices of food are still going up and they're finding other forms of government support are now being cut, like Working for Families, Best Start, KiwiSaver, and so on.' Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Hipkins 'has flip-flopped all over the place' and questioned how he would pay for reinstating pay equity as it had been. 'Is he going to tax for it or is he going to borrow for it, if he wants to unroll all those changes?' Luxon said it was a 'balanced Budget', which was focused on growth, and supporting people with the cost of living and on frontline services. Meanwhile, Winston Peters said he was proud of the SuperGold rates relief, and money for railways and defence. 'Everybody's going to make that statement, they're proud of this and proud of that,' he said. 'Most of them will say they're proud of their portfolio, but I suppose the fact is we could have made a big mistake and done what I've seen in the past. 'We have some revolutionary Budget we pay for for the next 15 years and I've seen a couple of those in my time.' He hinted, over the next few months, New Zealanders would see other changes that would assure them of 'a better economic outcome', thanks to his party's influence, although stayed coy on what those were. ACT leader David Seymour said 'the numbers speak for themselves', as a result of Brooke van Velden's pay equity changes. He also said the increased funding for private school subsidies would make things 'vaguely fair' and that he agreed to the Incentive Boost scheme, once he saw evidence it would be effective. 'If you're going to give any kind of target a tax break, then acquiring capital equipment and goods is probably the most powerful thing you can do, if you just want to see increased capital intensity.' The Green Party came out swinging, with co-leader Marama Davidson nicknaming the Budget the 'no-ambition Budget, it's the child-poverty Budget, it's the we-don't-care-about-women Budget, it's the we-don't-care-about-rangatahi Budget, it's the we-don't-care-about-disabled-people, we-don't-care-about-Māori, we-don't-care-about-Pasifika'. 'Who do we care about? Wealthy and fossil fuel companies.' Davidson said the JobSeeker changes for 18-19 year olds was the government saying 'with their full hearts, their full chests, they are really happy to be cruel and mean to people who are already having a hard time'. Chlöe Swarbrick said the $200m towards co-investment in new gasfields was potentially a breach of the UK and EU free trade agreements. Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the KiwiSaver changes would ensure the scheme was sustainable into the future, insisting it struck the right balance. 'New Zealand faces rising costs from superannuation from an ageing population and we need to make sure that we have our house in order.' She said officials were unable to advise on how many people would opt down to the current 3 percent rate, as it involved making guesses on people's behaviour. 'That is something we'll have to see in due course. I expect there will be many New Zealanders who, until they are feeling more financially secure, may not increase their contributions. 'I think many New Zealanders will, because the default will be that you instantly go to that higher rate and people will have to think very carefully about whether they want to save less.'
Scoop
24-05-2025
- Business
- Scoop
Rabbits, Switch-Ups And Highway Robbery: Politicians, Economists React To Budget 25
Budget Day is a bit of a whirlwind. Opposition politicians, journalists and economists have just three-and-a-half hours to pore over the books, before presenting reports and analysis on what's on offer, what it means to people and, of course, come up with a hot take or two. The government found $2.7 billion a year through its changes to pay equity, cut its own contributions to KiwiSaver, told 18 and 19 year olds it would no longer pay them to sit on the couch and introduced a new Investment Boost tax incentive, which is tipped to increase New Zealand's GDP by 1 percent over the next 20 years. It was dubbed the 'Growth Budget' by the government, although the finance minister was fond of calling it the 'No BS Budget'. Economists and MPs had their own nicknames and thoughts to share. Bagrie Economics managing director Cameron Bagrie called it the 'Rabbit Budget', as the pay equity changes allowed the government to pull the rabbit out of the hat and generate savings. "Looking forward, we need a few more rabbits to pull out of a few more hats in the 2026 and 2027 Budgets, because we're still a long way away from returning to surplus." The books are not expected to return to surplus until 2029 and, even then, it will be a modest surplus of $200 million. Bagrie said New Zealand still had not seen the hard yards. "The savings are all backloaded into 2027, 2028 and 2029, and those savings to be delivered are going to require that we need tight expenditure control in the 2026, 2027 and 2028 Budgets. We know that spending pressures, including the funding of the defence force, are going to be pretty intense." Council of Trade Unions economist Craig Renney, who is also on Labour's policy council, said it was a 'Highway Robbery Budget' with the changes to pay equity. "It's not a Budget that's delivering for working people and it doesn't appear to be a Budget with working people in mind," he said. "We're taking money straight out of the pockets of low-income workers. "We're taking benefits off 18-19 year olds, we're taking money from the education budget. We're taking money off Vote Māori Development, Vote Pacific Peoples and we're spending it on defence." On the KiwiSaver changes, Renney wanted assurances that employers would not put pressure on low income workers to deliberately take the 3 percent level, so their own costs did not go up. He praised the Investment Boost scheme, saying New Zealand was "way behind" in capital investment and the state had a big role to play. Baucher Consulting tax expert Terry Baucher was also a fan of the scheme, saying it was more generous than many predicted. He was less impressed with what was in the Budget for low-income families. "The government has increased the Working for Families threshold to $44,900, but that's still below what someone on minimum wage would earn annually and it's $10,000 lower than it should be, if it had been increased in line with inflation since June 2018," he said. "Arguably, you could say that the burden for that Investment Boost is being paid by low-income workers and I don't agree with that. It's a disappointment in that regard." He said New Zealand faced a "demographic crunch", and there was not enough in the Budget to encourage families to work and raise their children in New Zealand. "We're taking money from our younger working people to give to older, richer property-owning people and long-term, in my view, that's not a recipe for a growth economy." Baucher said he understood why the government was means-testing KiwiSaver at higher levels, although did not support reducing the government contributions overall. Inequality researcher Max Rashbrooke said the KiwiSaver changes were mean-spirited. "It is the state increasingly saying, 'If you're going to save, you're on your own. We're putting the burden on you to save out of your pay and we're putting the burden on your employer, rather than collectively, the state, trying to ensure that people are saving well for their retirement'." Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen said it was the 'Switch-up Budget' as the government tried to spend more, while cutting back. "There are some big trade-offs that the government has had to make in Budget 2025 and I think, definitely for some groups, they'll be saying that's probably the wrong trade-off," he said. Olsen was "fairly relaxed" on the KiwiSaver changes and did not believe the current government contribution rate stimulated a huge amount of further investment that otherwise would not happen. "I don't think it'll shift the dial in terms of more or less investment from Kiwis by getting rid of that government contribution, but by increasing both the employer and employee contribution rates, that will stimulate more savings over time and I think that's positive." He was also onboard with cutting the government contribution rate entirely for those earning more than $180,000, saying the government needed to get its books in order and it did not need to give those earning good money that much support. New Zealand Initiative chief economist Eric Crampton said the government was making slow progress towards the smaller structural deficit in 2029 and needed to sort it before the demographic changes really started to bite in the 2030s. "At some point, we have to wonder about the fiscal responsibility provisions in the Public Finance Act matter, because those effectively say you should not be running structural deficits for a decade, and we will have been running structural deficits for a decade. The ones during Covid were excusable - now, not so much." Crampton agreed that greater means-testing and targeted assistance to those in need made sense. "[It] can help towards fiscal consolidation," he said. "I don't need to be getting a subsidy towards my KiwiSaver. "It's better to target these sorts of things. Similarly, a bit tighter targeting in Working for Families can make a lot of sense. "It's good that they are stopping the inflation indexing of repayment thresholds for student loans. It would be nice if they took a few other measures." He pointed to re-instating interest on student loans as a measure that the government could take, while at the same time, increasing scholarships that are means-tested. No commitment from Labour on $12.8b pay equity return Fresh from delivering their speeches to the House, a rolling maul of MPs from government and opposition came across Parliament's tiles to take questions. First up was Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who continued to denounce the pay equity changes, particularly now there was a number put on them. He committed to reversing the changes, should Labour return to the government benches, but couldn't be nailed down on the exact amount. Primarily, that was because he was unsure how the government had arrived at its figures. "They still haven't released their calculations on how they arrived at the savings they've delivered today, so I can't give you numbers," he said. "I can give you the principle, which is the principle is very clear for us. We don't believe that women should be paid less than men." He also said the Working for Families changes were "a measly amount, won't even pay for a block of butter" and the government cutting its KiwiSaver contributions "raided the future retirement savings" of New Zealanders. "I think most Kiwi families will be feeling that any advantage they got from tax cuts last year has been well and truly absorbed by increased costs in other areas," Hipkins said. "Their power bills are still going up, their rents are still going up. "Prices of food are still going up and they're finding other forms of government support are now being cut, like Working for Families, Best Start, KiwiSaver, and so on." Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Hipkins "has flip-flopped all over the place" and questioned how he would pay for reinstating pay equity as it had been. "Is he going to tax for it or is he going to borrow for it, if he wants to unroll all those changes?" Luxon said it was a "balanced Budget", which was focused on growth, and supporting people with the cost of living and on frontline services. Meanwhile, Winston Peters said he was proud of the SuperGold rates relief, and money for railways and defence. "Everybody's going to make that statement, they're proud of this and proud of that," he said. "Most of them will say they're proud of their portfolio, but I suppose the fact is we could have made a big mistake and done what I've seen in the past. "We have some revolutionary Budget we pay for for the next 15 years and I've seen a couple of those in my time." He hinted, over the next few months, New Zealanders would see other changes that would assure them of "a better economic outcome", thanks to his party's influence, although stayed coy on what those were. ACT leader David Seymour said "the numbers speak for themselves", as a result of Brooke van Velden's pay equity changes. He also said the increased funding for private school subsidies would make things "vaguely fair" and that he agreed to the Incentive Boost scheme, once he saw evidence it would be effective. "If you're going to give any kind of target a tax break, then acquiring capital equipment and goods is probably the most powerful thing you can do, if you just want to see increased capital intensity." The Green Party came out swinging, with co-leader Marama Davidson nicknaming the Budget the "no-ambition Budget, it's the child-poverty Budget, it's the we-don't-care-about-women Budget, it's the we-don't-care-about-rangatahi Budget, it's the we-don't-care-about-disabled-people, we-don't-care-about-Māori, we-don't-care-about-Pasifika". "Who do we care about? Wealthy and fossil fuel companies." Davidson said the JobSeeker changes for 18-19 year olds was the government saying "with their full hearts, their full chests, they are really happy to be cruel and mean to people who are already having a hard time". Chlöe Swarbrick said the $200m towards co-investment in new gasfields was potentially a breach of the UK and EU free trade agreements. Finance Minister Nicola Willis said the KiwiSaver changes would ensure the scheme was sustainable into the future, insisting it struck the right balance. "New Zealand faces rising costs from superannuation from an ageing population and we need to make sure that we have our house in order." She said officials were unable to advise on how many people would opt down to the current 3 percent rate, as it involved making guesses on people's behaviour. "That is something we'll have to see in due course. I expect there will be many New Zealanders who, until they are feeling more financially secure, may not increase their contributions. "I think many New Zealanders will, because the default will be that you instantly go to that higher rate and people will have to think very carefully about whether they want to save less."
RNZ News
22-05-2025
- Business
- RNZ News
Budget Day 2025
The government's cuts, savings and new spending have been revealed in this year's Budget . At 2pm Thursday, the government opened its books and revealed Finance Minister Nicola Willis' second Budget. Willis called it the 'No BS Budget', while Prime Minister Christopher Luxon labelled it the 'Growth Budget'. Catch up with all of RNZ's updates for Budget 2025 as it happened below: Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Scoop
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Scoop
‘Budget Protects Power, Not People'
Te Pāti Māori is calling out the 'No BS Budget,' for what it really is: a Budget built on the suffering. 'This is the worst Budget we've seen. This Budget protects power, not people,' said Te Pāti Māori Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer. 'They didn't forget our tamariki — they ignored them. They ignored our wāhine, our iwi, our whānau.' Despite tangata whenua making up at least 20% of the population, Māori development is receiving only 0.27% of the total Budget — the lowest in a decade. 'This Budget is a betrayal of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It slashes our tino rangatiratanga and our ability to protect our lands, our waters, and our futures. This is a Budget that protects power, not people,' she said. 'There is no love in this Budget for Māori, for our babies, for anyone — except this government's rich mates,' said Te Pāti Māori Co-leader Rawiri Waititi. 'The government is systematically erasing our constitutional rights, defunding Māori-led solutions, and transferring wealth from those who need it to billionaires. 'This Budget doesn't build a future for Māori — it builds our demise. A truly responsible Budget would fund our solutions, not suppress them,' said Waititi. A Te Pāti Māori Budget would create an Aotearoa where the rights and obligations recognised in Te Tiriti o Waitangi are honoured, and where every person has access to food, housing, and healthcare. 'For once, I agree with the Prime Minister — Te Pāti Māori will tax more. We will tax Chris Luxon's rich mates and the people whose wealth he passes legislation to protect,' said Ngarewa-Packer. 'Our tax policy will benefit 97% of Aotearoa, provide eight weeks of free kai per year to whānau across the country, and ensure that the wealthy pay their fair share,' she said.
NZ Herald
21-05-2025
- Business
- NZ Herald
Budget 2025: Nicola Willis' focus on the Opposition shows she's feeling the pressure
Multiple unions are organising a protest at Parliament today at 1pm dubbed Protect Pay Equity. Focusing on the competition It was an unusual decision by Willis to lead off the general debate yesterday with a speech on the Labour Party and whether it will have a core Crown debt ceiling of 50% of GDP, as advised by Treasury. There were discrepancies between what leader Chris Hipkins said this week – no decision – and what finance spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds said last week – she supported the ceiling. It was hardly the issue of the day, one day before her much-anticipated second Budget. When she was at the Budget printers in Petone in the morning, Willis explicitly told media she was not focusing on the Opposition, then promptly went back into town and drafted a speech about them. The attack on the eve of her own Budget shows she will use anything that promotes her own sense of discipline. It also suggests she may be nervous about polling since the pay equity changes were passed under urgency. It wasn't just Labour in her sights. She ended her speech with a flourish against the big-spending Greens' alternative Budget: 'Just spare a thought also for Chlöe Swarbrick: she wants to save a planet that she doesn't even live on,' Willis said. The BS Budget or the BA Budget? Labour's Kieran McAnulty immediately responded to Nicola Willis' speech and her preferred nickname for the Budget as the 'No BS Budget': 'A confident finance Minister doesn't talk about her opposite; she talks about herself and what they've achieved and they didn't mention that once and New Zealanders know exactly why: because they have done bugger all, because they've buggered up the Budget.' C-bombs in the House – the sequel Andrea Vance, who used the c-word in the Sunday Star Times in describing the actions of women ministers over pay equity law changes, won the political journalist of the year award at last week's Voyager Media Awards for work in 2024. The other finalists were my Herald colleague Jamie Ensor and RNZ's Guyon Espiner. The Herald on Sunday won weekly newspaper of the year and the overall newspaper of the year. I was intrigued to see how Hansard, the record of Parliament, would handle the c-word after Act's Workplace Minister Brooke van Velden used it in Parliament last week in a bid to convey her outrage at Andrea Vance's column. Curiously, Hansard spelled out the full word in reporting van Velden's words, but put square brackets between the second letter and the last letter, like this: c[***] (asterisks ours). After making an inquiry to the Office of the Clerk as to why the brackets were there, I was told the reason is that van Velden's quote was not an exact quote from the Vance article; van Velden uttered the word, whereas the article used the letter c and three dots. Hansard handles all quotes the same way. If an MP claims to be quoting but it is not an exact quote, it gets the square bracket treatment. Justice delayed The Government normally has control of what happens in Parliament, but not this week. The debate on the Privileges Committee report recommending the suspension of three Te Pāti Māori MPs had to be held as the first item of business following the tabling of the report last Thursday, which meant it had to be held on Tuesday after Question Time. There was no way the debate could be delayed at the discretion of the Speaker, the Leader of the House or even by agreement among parties. The only way the debate could be adjourned was after the debate had begun, which is what Chris Bishop, as Leader of the House, moved after speeches by Privileges Committee chair Judith Collins and Labour leader Chris Hipkins. It was a closely guarded secret until Bishop's ambush, though why it was so secret is not evident. There is little sense of collegiality in the parliamentary complex at present. But Labour was not nimble enough, and having spent a couple of days calling for a delay in the debate so Te Pāti Māori leaders could take part in the Budget debate on Thursday, it got a minute's notice to think about the delay motion and vote against it. Hipkins thought that while the delay might let the MPs speak in the Budget, it might prevent them from voting on the Budget. It turns out they will be able to do both, although that is no guarantee they will. The whole episode has been frustrating, and that is clear in the comprehensive comment piece by political editor Thomas Coughlan. More crime and punishment Winston Peters was thrown out of the House on Tuesday for the first time this term for a completely daft question to his benchmate, the Prime Minister. Peters had not read the room properly and did not pick up on the fact that Speaker Gerry Brownlee was at breaking point in his attempts to tighten the leash at Question Time, ahead of what he thought was going to be a fraught debate following it. Deputy PM Winston Peters leaves the House on Tuesday. Photo / Adam Pearce Luxon had been answering questions from Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngarewa Packer about his interview the previous day with Newstalk ZB's Mike Hosking. Hosking had used the term 'Māorification' in a question around Stop/Go signs being in te reo (Taihoa/Haere). Ngārewa Packer questioned him about what he thought it meant and why he had not pushed back on the question, to which Peters made the following contribution: '...on the issue of 'Māorification', would it be 'Māorification' if every Thursday I went down and got myself a suntan?' Brownlee, having issued a warning two minutes earlier that he was not in a mood to be trifled with, told Peters to leave the House, although he let him back in at the end of Question Time. If you're going to get thrown out of the House, Winston, it is better for it to be on a point of principle, or at least something clever. Hanging judges Perhaps Peters' equilibrium had been disturbed. Earlier in the day, while making a KiwiRail Budget announcement at Wellington Railway Station, Peters had been heckled by a staff member of Tonkin + Taylor on his way to work, including the term 'You f***ing moron.' The heckler was wearing his work lanyard and the company has contracts with KiwiRail. Peters yesterday showed no sympathy for the staffer, whose conduct is being reviewed by his company and whose actions are being defended by the Free Speech Union. Perhaps following the example of the hanging judges on the Privileges Committee, the heckler could get a three-week suspension with no pay – and maybe some discount if he showed some contrition to Peters. By the way... • Winston Peters puts on his Foreign Minister's hat tomorrow and leaves for a trip taking in Adelaide, the home city of his Australian counterpart, Penny Wong, Sri Lanka, Nepal and India. It will be the first visit ever by a New Zealand Foreign Minister to Nepal and coincides with the 72nd anniversary of the summit of Everest by Tenzing Norgay and Sir Edmund Hillary. • Parliament is set to go into urgency after the Budget today and is expected to stretch into a Saturday sitting. We know this because the cafeteria staff have been asked to open at 8am on Saturday. Quote unquote 'It is not a Budget filled with rainbows and unicorns. It is a reality Budget that will deliver genuine hope for the future.' – Finance Minister Nicola Willis at the Petone printers yesterday. Micro quiz What year was the so-called Mother of All Budgets presented? (Answer below.) Brickbat ACC Minister Scott Simpson. Photo / Hagen Hopkins Goes to ACC Minister Scott Simpson, who said in response to a question from Labour's Camilla Belich about a particular ACC programme that has been stopped: 'ACC is an independent Crown entity, and I, as Minister, stand at arm's length from operational decisions.' You don't hear the ministers of Health, Housing or Transport say that about Health NZ, Kāinga Ora or Waka Kotahi. Bouquet Eric Crampton, chief economist of the NZ Initiative. Goes to Eric Crampton, the chief economist of the NZ Initiative think-tank, who refused to accept Treasury's invitation to today's Budget lock-up unless it lifted itsban on Council of Trade Unions economist Craig Renney– which it did. This week's top stories OPINION - Budget 2025: KiwiSaver changes, tax write-offs and other 'surprises' – Jenée Tibshraeny on what to watch out for in today's Budget. Budget 2025 – debt debate: In the final days before the Budget, Finance Minister Nicola Willis has been turning up the heat on Labour for its flip-flopping on debtthat . Budget 2025 preview: The Government needs to find billions of dollars for the numbers to add up in today's Budget. Derek Cheng outlines what we know so far. Budget 2025 – health spending: Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Health Minister Simeon Brown have announced that $164 million will be spent on urgent care across the country. Peters heckling: The employer of a man who heckled NZ First leader Winston Peters during a press conference has drawn criticism after apologising for his behaviour and saying the company had launched an investigation. MPs' punishment: The Government has passed a surprise motion to delay the debate on the punishment of three Te Pāti Māori MPs for participating in last year's controversial haka in the House. OPINION – MPs' punishment: MPs' failure to compromise on the punishments meted out to three Te Pāti Māori MPs after last year's haka in the House bodes ill for Parliament, writes Thomas Coughlan. MPs' property: The latest disclosures of politicians' financial interests have been released by Parliament, revealing how MPs' property portfolios looked at the start of the year. Regulatory Standards Bill: Implementing the Regulatory Standards Bill will cost a minimum of $20 million per annum across 20 years, government officials estimate. Digital Services Tax: The Government has binned a tax worth an estimated $100 million each year after threats of retaliation from US President Donald Trump. Greens' budget: Labour leader Chris Hipkins has called the Green Party's alternative budget 'unrealistic', but says he agrees with some elements. ANALYSIS – think-tank 101: What is a political think-tank and who are the key players in New Zealand? Audrey Young explains. ANALYSIS – social sector shakeup: 'We need a different model' - Andy Coster talks to Audrey Young about his new role in reshaping social sector funding. Stay with us for comprehensive coverage of today's Budget, including live coverage from 2pm, with interviews with major players, in-depth analysis and commentary. Parliament will go into urgency later today to debate Budget-related legislation. Parliament will be in recess next week. Quiz answer: 1991, by Ruth Richardson For more political news and views, listen to On the Tiles, the Herald's politics podcast.
