Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: This year's Budget doesn't go far enough

Heather du Plessis-Allan Drive

I don’t want to start on a bum note, but if you share my view that this country is in a hot mess financially, then this Budget is underwhelming, disappointing - you pick your epithet.

It’s called the growth Budget, but there's no growth in it. The only growth is a result of a tax incentive scheme which is a good idea - but doesn’t go far enough.

It lifts GDP by, get this, 1 percent over 20 years. What is that? Is that growth or a rounding error?

In fact, the Budget is full of this kind of thing - good ideas that are only half baked.

Cutting 18 and 19 year olds off the dole and making the parents taking responsibility is a great idea - but it's so full of loopholes, so you can see exactly how those kids are going to get around the rules and stay on the dole.

Cutting the Government KiwiSaver contribution to rich people is exactly what should happen - but it should be cut to everyone.

The gas exploration money is exactly what needs to happen - but it's tiny, a couple of hundred million dollars in an industry that talks in billions.

Five billion dollars of savings and cuts - which is small. That's the same amount we rack up in interest payments on our debt in just 7 months.

So if you were hoping for something to turn this ship around, something that supercharges growth or slashes spending or really gets us out of the financial trouble we’re in - this is not it.

This is a budget of good ideas that don’t go far enough.

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