Budget 2026: Labour not saying what it would keep or cut from Nicola Willis’ Budget
Labour isn’t yet saying what the party does and doesn’t support after the release of the Government’s Budget.
Leader Chris Hipkins and finance spokeswoman Barbara Edmonds are instead calling for patience as they analyse the Budget documents and promise all will be revealed in its fiscal plan, for which a release date has not been publicly announced.
It comes after the party has batted away extensive criticism for a dearth of policy by saying it was waiting for the Budget.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is continuing to whack Labour as the “laziest Opposition” he’s seen, while the Green Party has also made some jabs at its potential coalition partner, suggesting Labour doesn’t have the “courage of their convictions”.
Speaking to reporters at Parliament, Hipkins stressed he had only had two hours to assess the Budget as he deflected questions about where his party stood on the various announcements revealed today.
Asked whether he would cancel anything immediately, Hipkins said: “We’re going to take the time to do our homework properly before we make those calls.”
There were some aspects he broadly welcomed, including more funding for health, such as postnatal support, increasing capital spending to fund infrastructure projects and the $450 million fund to address potential fuel price hikes.
However, Hipkins and Edmonds were reluctant to give a definitive position on much of what was announced, such as the new bank levy and tax rule changes for the charitable and not-for-profit sector.
“We’re going to take some time to digest the Budget carefully, we can clearly see what wasn’t in this year’s Budget, which was stuff that’s going to give New Zealanders hope,” Hipkins said.
“We will set out our own plans, we will have a different set of priorities.”
The pair wouldn’t confirm when it would release its fiscal plan, saying it would not come in the next month but assured it would come sooner than two weeks before the election, which was when National released its fiscal plan ahead of the 2023 election.
Hipkins was sceptical of Finance Minister Nicola Willis’ celebration of a return to surplus in 2028/29, doubting whether the Government’s proposed public service cuts could be realised.
“Whether those savings are credible is something that we’re going to be probing very carefully, hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts to [the Department of Conservation] and biosecurity, and a lot of [cuts to] frontline services would need to be made in order to meet those projections that are in this year’s Budget.”
Immediately after Labour’s 2023 Budget, then National leader Luxon promised to reverse changes made to prescription fees.
Luxon today considered Hipkins’ response to his Budget “outrageous” and believed he would have been “crucified” if he had done the same in Opposition.
“It’s woeful, and that’s why I say they’re the laziest, most unsuccessful Opposition I’ve seen because they have no policy ideas, they have no nothing to contribute to the debate.”
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick, who released her party’s fiscal plan last year, stated her colleagues had the “courage of their convictions” by releasing a raft of their own policies.
Asked if the same could be said of Labour, Swarbrick said: “That’s a question that you should put to the Labour Party.”
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald’s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei and the Herald in Auckland.