Duncan Garner: Nine things I would put in the Budget

Finance Minister Nicola Willis delivers her first Budget next week backgrounded by a tanking economy, thousands of people looking for work, and confirmation that interest rates won’t start to ease until well into next year.

So, no pressure then.

“It’s the economy, stupid”, is a phrase often heard -- when something goes bang, the flip side goes pop. With economic growth easing, government revenue is a fast follower - all part of the downside story with businesses reporting lower profits and therefore paying less in tax, while costs remain high due to stubborn inflation.

Chuck in the Reserve Bank’s narrow mandate to keep inflation down by ripping every last dollar from our wallets and little wonder a net 52,000 Kiwis left the country in the 12 months just gone. It’s the biggest net migration loss New Zealand has recorded.

It might be a tad late to change this Budget now - the hard work has been done and the tax cuts are coming - but here’s what I would do. And before you say, “What does Duncan Garner know about economics?” here’s the answer: perhaps about as much as Willis, who has a first-class honours degree in English and graduated with a journalism diploma from Canterbury University. I had a first-class experience at AUT, graduated top of the class with a Bachelor of Communications, majoring in journalism and spent the $200 prize money at a bar near Aotea Square. So, here’s my plan - and remember most of the money goes on health, education and welfare, leaving not much for anything else:

Cancel the tax cuts

These are going ahead because the National Party promised them. I get that, but they’re a political pledge or payback and not any form of economic silver bullet. But stuff the tax cuts. We’ve waited so long for them to arrive and by now, billions of dollars are spread across the nation so thinly that most of us will wonder if they happened at all.

And they’re inflationary. And police officers and nurses are leaving for Australia where they’re paid properly. Aren’t we trying to put the fire out, not create more flames to fan the inflation?

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