But the truth is, it doesn’t go far enough - at all.
Because understand this - that $1.3 billion that she’s given herself in her operating allowance is new spending. As in, take last year’s budget and now increase it by $1.3 billion.
For context, Nicola Willis spent more money last year than Grant Robertson ever did in any of his budgets - and now she’s adding another $1.3 billion to it.
Now I understand that this is conventional politics - budgets increase every year.
The last time it didn't, the last time we had a zero budget where we didn’t add any more money was Bill English's 2011 budget - because we’d had the earthquake.
But what that tells you is it’s possible to not increase the spending - and I would argue that is exactly what we should be doing at the moment. Because we are in big financial trouble as a country.
We are running structural deficits - that means we are spending more every year than we make.
If it was a household, we’d be talking about a family spending more than they earn and running up the difference on credit cards every year - but still deciding every year to spend more. That’s what we’re doing.
I think we need to cut big things.
Now, I don’t want to be accused of being a racist, so I'm reluctant to say publicly that we should cut the Ministry for Māori Development or the Ministry for Pacific Peoples - but I am a woman, so I'm very happy to say we should cut the Ministry for Women.
Why do we need it? Why do we need a Ministry for the Environment and also a Department of Conservation? I could go on.
But if we don't get real and start running smaller budgets where we spend within our means, something will have to give.
And the thing every commentator out there seems to want to cut is your pension - because it's very expensive to the country.
Now if I had a choice, I'd keep the pension and cut out nonsense like ministries we don't need and stop spending more every year than we did the last.
Like I said, I'm impressed.
Nicola Willis is going further than I thought she would - but not far enough if we're actually going to fix the country's books.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show HERE - where this article was sourced.
2 comments:
You are quite right Heather. Were things so awful before we had all these departments? DOC has restructured time and again at what cost? Never are we told how Māori settlements are funded. The elephant in the room still remains. The media keep harping on about the economy being the main bone of contention with voters, and no one can deny it is very important, however I would guess racial issues splitting our country by ethnicity is the No.1 priority. Unfortunately fear of backlash prevents most people feeling able to vent their frustration at the ongoing pandering to a generation, who for the most part, have had enormous opportunity as a result of the modern world.
I am from the South Island and we can cut two things immediately Ministry for the South Island and the hopelessly huge South Island Maori Electorate.
It is inconceivable that Willis thinks we accept her corporate speak and that of the PM as intelligent .
Imagine if she said ; Heres the untarnished truth this budget 2025 , I am cutting the Ministeries to eleven (11) and these are the Ministeries that are gone in this budget and list them all.
Parliament then can look NZ in the eye next election and declare we are fiscal managers and we do make hard decisions .
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