BUDGET 2021: Surplus back in sight as Robertson ends Ruthanasia

Thu, 20 May 2021

The finance minister, Grant Robertson, has a cash surplus in sight after New Zealand’s economy showed remarkable resilience through the covid-19 pandemic, with unemployment half what economists had feared in the depths of last year’s outbreak.That strength in the government’s fiscal position has seen a hike in welfare supports that will return them to the level they were 30 years ago when then minister Ruth Richardson took a knife to benefits, with a single person on the jobseeker benefit set to receive almost half what they&r...

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