Khalia’s Kupu: Reflecting on Budget 2025 announcement

They say politics and religion shouldn’t meet, but for a “no BS” Budget of biblical proportions, quoting scripture seems apt.

“Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” - Matthew 6:21 (NLT)

Rough translation: where you put your time, energy, and investment, shows where your priorities are.

So what does yesterday’s Budget reveal about the Government’s heart?

Unsurprisingly, the health sector is a big ticket item, with $1 billion to upgrade buildings such as the Nelson Hospital, Wellington Emergency Department and Auckland Hospital, and $447 million for primary and urgent after-hours care.

Education: $2.5b, including $646m for student learning support like speech language, therapists, teacher aides, and educational psychologists.

To some of the more contestable items. Arming ourselves: $4.15b to defence, Law and order $7.6b, and new gas fields $200m.

Other areas have taken some careful manoeuvring of the books, where the government will not be spending more, but will be taking less in tax, such as the tax deductibility for business expenses, and a rates rebate for retirees.

Let’s look at where the government’s pulse has dropped, or completely flatlined.

Women in lower-income jobs. We now know the controversial changes to Pay Equity claims have saved the government a whopping $12.8b over four years.

Pay equity protesters voiced their dissatisfaction outside Parliament on Budget Day. Photo/RNZ/Marika Khabazi

Funding for the Ministry for Pacific Peoples has been slashed by almost $36m, including closing the Tauola Business fund and halving the Tupu Aotearoa programme, which supports Pacific people into employment and training.

Funding for the National Fale Malae has also been scrapped, $2.7m has already gone into this from the $10m that was granted in Budget 2020.

Money from the Pacific Education Programmes, $7m over the next four years, has also been ‘reprioritised’ towards homework and tutoring services for Year 9 and 10 students in schools with high Pacific representation.

New parents are also in the firing line. If your household earns more than $97,000 a year, forget about the Best Start payment, designed to give families a small buffer to ease the pressure around having a newborn.

KiwiSaver: The Government is halving the contribution, while raising the default rate by one per cent for workers and their bosses.

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And Youth: If you’re 18 or 19 and want to be independent, expect Work and Income to be checking in with your parents first. Jobseekers and Emergency Benefits will soon be tested against their parents’ incomes, saving the Government $163m over four years.

While most will agree we don’t want teenagers leaving school and getting stuck in a benefit rut, the income threshold is yet to be decided.

It’s hard to summarise a feeling on the already very low expectations heading into Budget 2025. But after yesterday’s Budget, I’ve decided we must not assign human feelings to a Government, which has to operate like a hardened, number-crunching robot.

For those who feel left out by yesterday’s figures, the detachment from the state continues, the yawning inequity widens, and our lives go on.

But the heartbeat of our nation remains with us - the communities, the people, and our families. We’ve done it tough before, and we will continue to press on because that’s the only option.

That’s Khalia’s Kupu.