How does the government Budget work and what does that mean for you?
Māori housing is one of the big winners in the Budget, with the Government allocating with $380 million of the $1 billion-plus spending for Māori on building 1000 new warm, dry homes. Recognising that Māori “were far less likely to own their own home,” Finance Minister Grant Robertson said on Thursday it was the government s responsibility to address this “inequity”. The housing spend was in addition to $350m ring-fenced for Māori from the government s Housing Acceleration Fund, aimed at supporting Māori and iwi providers to build homes for whānau.
Housing Minister Megan Woods and Finance Minister Grant Robertson.
Photo: RNZ / Dom Thomas
Finance Minister Grant Robertson yesterday confirmed the Budget would contain significant funding for Māori housing, but beyond that, the details were scant. Clearly that was a very large package that we announced in March, Robertson said. You ll wait till Thursday to see what else is there, but that [package] is the cornerstone of our housing approach, certainly in this year.
Housing Minister Megan Woods too bridled at questions over whether the Budget would contain a greater focus on housing supply. We ve already had $5.8 billion worth of housing announcements. That s not some, Woods said.
Budget 2021: What I want to see - Paula Bennett, Sue Bradford, Neale Jones and Jon Stokes
5 May, 2021 05:00 PM
7 minutes to read
(From left) Neale Jones, Paula Bennett, Sue Bradford and Jon Stokes outline what they want to see in the Budget. Image / NZ Herald
(From left) Neale Jones, Paula Bennett, Sue Bradford and Jon Stokes outline what they want to see in the Budget. Image / NZ Herald
NZ Herald
We asked political veterans from the left and the right to give us their Budget 2021 wish-lists. They ll be back after the Budget with their verdicts too.
Paula Bennett
For the country and our economy to get moving, for the good of all New Zealanders, we need the private and public sector to work more closely together and for the Government to give business some certainties.