Professor Robert MacCulloch: Willis' Pre-Budget Speech is Out-of-Touch Wellington Jokey Silliness....

Finance Minister Willis wants her NZ Budgets to be "lolly scrambles", just not in 2025. Her Pre-Budget Speech is Out-of-Touch Wellington Jokey Silliness.

For some light relief and comedy, take a look at Finance Minister Willis Pre-Budget Speech. She sets up her party clown theme by saying, "For today though, I’m going to switch out of my Economic Growth hat and into my Minister of Finance hat and focus my remarks on this year’s Budget". What's with these hats?

Michael Reddell: A pre-Budget speech

In a pre-Budget speech this morning the Minister of Finance announced that this year’s operating allowance – the net amount available for new initiatives – was being reduced from $2.4 billion to $1.3 billion (speech here, RNZ story here). Operating allowance numbers in isolation don’t mean a great deal (what happens to the rate of general inflation matters a lot) but a cut like that, at the very end of the Budget process, can probably be taken at face value. On its own, it is equivalent to about a quarter of a per cent of GDP.

Point of Order: The numbers game....

....Robertson will be aiming to strike a budgetary balance that tips the electoral scales in govt’s favour

The political commentariat has been given more numbers to inform its pre-election prognostications, since Point of Order last checked on what our ministers are doing.

There were oodles of numbers in the latest Taxpayers’ Union – Curia Poll (released yesterday). These essentially show support declining for both the ruling Labour party and National while minor parties ACT and the Māori Party would get more seats (if the election was held now) and the Greens would retain their seats.

Heather du Plessis-Allan: Hipkins is sounding like the leader of National

National should be sweating, because Chris Hipkins is stealing their lines. 

That is what struck me listening to his pre-budget speech today. His speech could’ve been delivered by the leader of the National Party.

It was in front of a business audience. He took a crack at the last Government- as if he wasn’t actually a part of Jacinda’s Government- saying “The reality is the Government was previously doing too much, too fast”.

And then he told us that economic growth was his priority. His budget would focus on three things: skills, science and infrastructure investment.