Politics: National says government’s plan for this budget is irresponsible.
If Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s pre-budget speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce is anything to go by, do not expect too many surprises in the May 20 budget.
Robertson
Govt reveals $1b Budget boost after Covid underspend
Finance Minister Grant Robertson. (Photo / NZ Herald)
Govt reveals $1b Budget boost after Covid underspend Tue, 4 May 2021, 9:11AM
Almost $1 billion that was allocated for the Covid-19 response last year was never spent, and Finance Minister Grant Robertson has put it back into the Covid fund to spend on the recovery.
Robertson delivered the first of his pre-Budget speeches this morning to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce, saying Budget 2021 would be a recovery Budget .
He also announced he had been tasked by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern with heading a new unit in her department that was responsible for ensuring delivery on the Government s priorities such as mental health, infrastructure, climate change, and housing.
Press Release – New Zealand National Party Plans by the Government to reallocate $926 million of money unspent from the Covid Response and Recovery Fund is irresponsible and burdens future generations with even more debt than is necessary, Nationals Finance spokesperson Michael Woodhouse …
Plans by the Government to reallocate $926 million of money unspent from the Covid Response and Recovery Fund is irresponsible and burdens future generations with even more debt than is necessary, National’s Finance spokesperson Michael Woodhouse says.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson told a Wellington Chamber of Commerce audience this morning that the Government intended to spend ‘reprioritised’ Covid funding in other parts of Budget 2021.
Press Release – New Zealand Government Hon Grant Robertson Deputy Prime Minister Minister of Finance The Governments strong pandemic response and the better than expected economic recovery means not all the money allocated in the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund has been spent, …
Hon Grant Robertson
Minister of Finance
The Government’s strong pandemic response and the better than expected economic recovery means not all the money allocated in the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund has been spent, Grant Robertson said in his annual pre-Budget speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce this morning.
“As part of Budget preparation I asked each Minister to look again at the areas of the COVID spending for which they were responsible to see if it was still required or still a priority, and whether underspends could be reprioritised.
Tuesday, 4 May 2021, 2:35 pm
One real estate boss says the Finance Minister is
alarmingly silent on what the Government will further do to
help first-home buyers into the property market. In fact, he
is now actively lowering expectations ahead of Budget 2021
on 20 May.
The
comments from Derryn Mayne, Owner of Century 21 New Zealand,
follow Grant Robertson’s Pre-Budget speech to the
Wellington Chamber of Commerce this morning.
There the
Finance Minister talked up the Government’s housing
package in March but alluded to no further housing
announcements in the forthcoming Budget. Instead, he said
‘turning around a housing crisis, decades in the making,