WILLING TON: Labour and its governing partners have been laying the groundwork for a Budget that will signal new priorities for spending, after building the case for significant increases to public sector funding.
Ministers have been dropping claims of ‘fiscal holes’ in health, education and defence and will have others lined up before Budget Day.
Until now it has been a case of ‘he said, she said’ with denials from National about persistent underfunding or spending promises with no money tagged to them.
National’s mantra, particularly in its early years of governing, was the expectation the public sector do more with less, accompanied by relentless restructuring. There is restructure fatigue in the public service, and also a more sceptical view among some that while core agencies and departments have been stripped back, the use of consultants continues to flourish.
The coalition government will take a different tack, with promises to pour money into health, education and housing in particular. That has created big expectations within those sectors that may start to push back if the Budget does not meet those expectations.
Under the self imposed deadline of its own 100 day plan the government launched into an ambitious programme to implement, or start the ball rolling, on key policies and initiatives.
The first was the fees free tertiary policy, in the first year for those who had not studied before.
The jury is still out on whether that will actually achieve better access to tertiary study as intended; what is clear is that at $2.8 billion over four years it does not come cheap and is a commitment that will limit what the government can do in its first term.
Other big ticket items like the Provincial Growth Fund and the Kiwibuild Programme will also take up a fair amount of room in Finance Minister Grant Robertson’s first Budget.
