BUDGET 2021: On balance, a Labour government

BUDGET 2021: On balance, a Labour government
This is a classic, almost old-style Labour budget, which its opponents will characterise as “spend, spend, spend”.
Pattrick Smellie
The first budget from the first majority government of the MMP era has emphatically answered the question its most peeved and restive supporters had been asking.That question was: ‘is this really a Labour government?’The answer, delivered in the budget and most emphatically in raising social welfare benefits – is a clear ’yes’.Excluding pensions, the benefit increases to levels recommended by the Welfare Expert Advisory Group allow Grant Robertson to trumpet “the biggest lift in benefits in more than a genera...

More Opinion

The ghost of inflation past, present and future
Opinion

Warren Couillault: The ghost of inflation past, present and future

Last year’s bogeyman will remain as above-the-range inflation expected for most of 2024.

What happened to NZ Rugby’s $100m capital raise
Opinion

Trevor McKewen: What happened to NZ Rugby’s $100m capital raise

NZR has an inordinate amount on its plate right now.

Trevor McKewen 08 Dec 2023
Our tech companies are going global at an accelerating rate
Opinion

Peter Griffin: Our tech companies are going global at an accelerating rate

NZ tech companies are expected to recruit over half of their staff offshore by 2028.

Peter Griffin 07 Dec 2023