Venkat Raman
New Zealanders can expect a ‘Wellbeing Budget,’ which will support growth of human, natural, financial and social capital, Finance Minister Grant Robertson has said.
Budget 2018, to be presented to Parliament on Thursday, May 17, 2018, will be the first for Mr Robertson as the Finance Minister. He has since long held the view that New Zealand’s fiscal policy should be as much business-friendly as it is socially conscious, but just how the two opposites will meet remains to be seen.
Finance 2018 Meeting
Mr Robertson told ‘Finance 2018,’ a luncheon meeting hosted by the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and Massey University at the latter’s Albany Campus on Friday, March 9, 2018 that he was preparing Budget 2018 that would fulfill many of the promises made by his Labour Party as a part of its election campaign last year.
The meeting, ninth in an annual series brought Mr Robertson to deliberate on several issues covering housing, productivity, tax reform, education and training, infrastructure and sustainability.
“This will be a very different way of presenting a budget and it will be a very different set of success measures. The Child Poverty reduction targets are the first indication of where we are going,” he told members of the business community, academics and media.
Mr Robertson also highlighted the role that universities had to play in the country’s future.
Building Partnerships
He said that the Government’s goal was to lift research and development spending to 2% of GDP within a decade, and to build better partnerships between Crown Research Institutes, universities and the private sector.
“If you look at the economies around the world that do well, there are two things that stand out about them: the investment they make in education and training and the investment they make in research and development,” he said.
Creating Resilient workforce
Mr Robertson said that changing technology, automation and artificial intelligence were reshaping the future of work, and that the solution was skills training and education and creating an adaptable, resilient workforce.
“The government has a plan for the economy that is about productivity, sustainability and inclusion. If we get that right, we can build on the prosperity we have to ensure it continues and that everybody gets a fair share of it,” he said.
Working with Massey
Massey University Vice-Chancellor Professor Jan Thomas asked the business community and the Government to maintain their connections with Massey.
“Those connections are what makes our qualifications relevant and out graduates work-ready and we need to work with you to identify the problems that we can apply our academics to so that we can help find the solutions,” she said.
The profits from ‘Finance 2018’ go to supporting promising students and Auckland Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Michael Barnett announced this year’s recipients.
Massey University’s top first-year finance student Mia Davis and top first-year economics student Tony Carroll were each awarded with a $1000 scholarship.
Our Editor adds:
The ‘Budget Policy Statement’ (BPS) announced recently was the new Government’s first action in preparing Budget 2018. It sets the broad fiscal parameters within which details for the Budget will be determined and states the Government’s priorities for the Budget.
The BPS also summarises the Treasury’s updated economic and fiscal forecasts based on current prospects and policies, as set out in the Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update.
The Government will lift the incomes of families to reduce child poverty, protect the environment, create more jobs and build more affordable houses, while running surpluses and reducing net debt.
“We are committed to building a strong economy, to being fiscally responsible and to providing certainty to the public and markets. There will be a clear focus on sustainable economic development, supporting regional economies, increasing exports, lifting wages and reducing inequality,” Mr Robertson said.
“This BPS reaffirms our commitment to operate within the Government’s Budget Responsibility Rules. These rules include running sustainable operating surpluses across the economic cycle, reducing net debt to 20% of GDP within five years of taking office and keeping government expenditure as a percentage of GDP in line with historic trends,” he added.
The BPS confirms operating allowances of $2.6 billion per year in Budget 2018 and $1.875 billion per year in Budgets 2019 to 2021. Capital allowances have been set at $3.4 billion for Budgets 2018 and 2019, $3.1 billion for Budget 2020 and $2.7 billion for Budget 2021.
Major investments will be made in housing, health, education, police and infrastructure to address the social and infrastructure deficits that have emerged in New Zealand.
The operating balance before gains and losses is expected to be in surplus of $2.5 billion in 2017-2018 (0.9% of GDP), rising to $8.8 billion in 2021-2022 (2.5% of GDP).
These surpluses help ensure net core Crown debt reduces to 19.3% of GDP in 2021-2022.
Photo :
Finance Minister Grant Robertson with Michael Barnett and Professor Jan Thomas at Finance 2018.
(Picture by Massey News)
