Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. (René Descartes, mathematician and philosopher,1599-1650)

Friday 21 May 2021

pn728. Reactions to the 2021 Budget

 

Reactions to the Budget tended to the positive with most criticism saying Government could have done more. Here are some opinions. For a list of articles on the Budget, see NZ Politics Daily.

"A budget inspired by Labour’s original economic and social principles. 

"The legacy Robertson and his colleagues have accepted from the past is not the legacy of Helen Clark and Michael Cullen, but of Norman Kirk and Bill Rowling. The torch which the Baby Boom Generation refused to accept, has been grasped by their children."-- Chris Trotter.

"It’s great the government has righted one of the wrongs of (Ruth Richardson's) “Mother of all Budgets”, but there were many, and the work has only started. It should have done much, much more with its pristine balance sheet and a torrent of literally free money sloshing around the world desperate to be invested in government bonds." -- Bernard Hickey

Budget prioritises ‘righting inequality wrongs’, Thirty years on from the ‘Mother of all Budgets’ the Labour-majority Government has targeted inequality, but it will be April next year before the full benefit lift is truly felt, writes political editorJo Moir.

The changes are focused particularly on families with children, with the Government projecting that between 19,000 and 33,000 children will be removed out of poverty in mid-2022. -- Henry Cooke

BERL's chief economist, Hillmarè Shulze, and commentator Bernard Hickey told Breakfast the Government could have done a lot more. 

"It's quite a missed opportunity for this Government. We have seen really good economic growth, very low unemployment, and also the debt levels are coming in much lower than expected," Shulze said.  Click here.

Some headings from NZ Politics Daily

Budget: General
Chris Trotter (Daily Blog): Passing the torch
Audrey Young (Herald): This was the easy Budget for Grant Robertson (paywalled)
Bernard Hickey (Spinoff): The missed opportunity in Budget 2021
Tim Watkin (Pundit): Labour gets to be Labour, delivering a step-change budget 30 years in the making
Matthew Hooton (Herald): Lessons from the Budget and the one issue that may derail Jacinda Ardern (paywalled)
Simon Wilson (Herald): Grant Robertson and his Budget Day Holy Grail (paywalled)
Fran O'Sullivan (Herald): Look to the future, don't dwell on rewriting the past (paywalled)
Michael Andrew (Spinoff): Government ‘could have done more to push the envelope’
Brad Olsen (Stuff): Budget 2021 shows higher spending, but with restraint
Bernard Hickey: Budget 2021 special: Righting some wrongs. A bit.
Danyl Mclauchlan (Spinoff): More ambitious and coherent than anything yet from Ardern and Robertson
Raf Manji (Stuff): Welcome focus on reducing inequality needs to continue
Thomas Manch (Stuff): The winners and losers in a welfare-focused Budget
Richard Harman: A Labour of love (paywalled)
The Spinoff: The great Spinoff hot-take roundtable
Liam Dann (Herald): Budget 2021 geared to keep 'better-than-expected' story rolling (paywalled)
Peter Dunne: Grant Robertson’s three factors in the Budget
Herald: Editorial: Budget 2021 - A very Labour Budget in the time of Covid 19 coronavirus (paywalled)
ODT: Editorial – Robertson’s shrewd Budget
Jessica Mutch McKay (1News): The year of the 'Benefit Budget' with welfare, Māori getting significant boost
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Grant Robertson's deep red budget seeks to 'right a wrong' from 30 years ago
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Budget gets a 'B' for Boring
Brian Fallow (Herald): Grant Robertson plays it down the middle despite opportunity to invest (paywalled)
Jennifer Curtin, David Hall, Michael Fletcher, and Nina Ives (The Conversation): NZ Budget 2021: billions more for benefits, but one eye on the bottom line
Herald: The verdicts from Paula Bennett, Sue Bradford, Neale Jones and Jon Stokes
Herald: Experts and commentators rate Grant Robertson's Budget
Ben Thomas (Stuff): Blockbuster Budget is Robertson's answer to the 'Mother of All Budgets'
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Labour rewards its faithful
No Right Turn: Labour actually does something
Martyn Bradbury (Daily Blog): Budget 2021 Winners and Losers: Exorcising the Ghost of National’s Mother of all Budgets
Rod Oram (Newsroom): Budget lip service to economic transformation
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): On balance, a Labour government (paywalled)
Justin Giovannetti (Spinoff): Benefits boosted by up to $55 a week, ‘righting a wrong’, says Robertson
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Labour spends big on benefits, health in its first unleashed Budget
Rosie Collins (Spinoff): A balanced budget. But ‘balance’ today is a political word, not an economic one
Felippe Rodrigues and Kate Newton (Stuff): Hey big spending: The Budget in five charts
Derek Cheng (Herald): The 10 things you need to know
Jo Moir (Newsroom): PM banking on middle NZ putting kids first
Hannah Kronast (Newshub): ACT leader David Seymour slams 'la-la Budget', compares it to an episode of That '70s Show
Brigitte Morten (RNZ): Budget 21 is a 'cheugy', living in the past budget
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Business 'overlooked' as Government focus turns to benefits and health sector
Jason Walls (Herald): The 'La La Budget' vs 'Broken Compass Budget' – Opposition battles for unofficial Budget name
Bryce Edwards: Cartoons about Budget 2021


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