• Today’s Budget features tax cuts ranging from $4 - $40 a fortnight for all workers on more than $14,000
• Your tax cut revealed - enter your details into the calculator
• Audrey Young: Buckle in - money is tight, you better believe it
Income-earning Kiwis will get a tax cut from a $14.7 billion tax package in this year’s Budget.
Contrary to expectations the scheme might be pared back or cut entirely, Finance Minister Nicola Willis’s tax cuts were almost exactly like what National had campaigned on since August last year delivering income boosts of $4.50 to $135 a week depending on a person’s circumstance.
Willis had been under pressure to scrap the scheme, but she held her ground, delivering the promised tax cuts, paired with a big increase to the health budget, all the while delivering the smallest net increase to spending since the budgets of her National predecessor Steven Joyce. Contrary to expectation, a surplus is forecast for 2028.
The tax package is a combination of adjusting tax thresholds by about 11.5 per cent to account for inflation, expanding eligibility to a $10 a week tax credit, and the new childcare tax credit that was announced prior to the Budget.
What this means means differs by someone’s circumstance:
- A minimum wage earner will be better off by about $12.50 a week
- A working couple whose combined income is $150,000 will be better off by $40 a week
- A single adult earning $55,000 a year will be better off by about $25.50 a week
- A sole parent with two teenage children will be better off by about $45 a week
- And a retired couple receiving superannuation will get $4.50 a week, rising to $13 a week, although part of this calculation depends in forecast superannuation increases.
ARTICLE CONTINUES AFTER LIVE BLOG
Kia ora and welcome to our live coverage of the 2024 Budget, which the Government unveiled at 2pm today.
Stay with us for expert commentary and analysis in a live video panel hosted by Business Herald editor at large Liam Dann.
For those joining us now, here's what you may have missed:
• Tax cuts revealed worth $14 billion to tackle ‘prolonged cost of living crisis’
• Here are 10 key points from Government’s announcement
• Business analysis: Willis sticks to tax cut plans, and running a very tight ship: Jenée Tibshraeny
• Tax cuts explained –Use our tax calculator to see what’s in it for you
• Audrey Young analysis: Things are tight, you’d better believe it
• Explore the numbers in our interactive
03:38 pmHealth budget 'barely keeps the lights on': doctors' union
The Association of Salaried Medical Specialists (ASMS) said the Budget would barely keep the public health sector’s lights on and isn’t enough to tackle long waiting lists and take the pressure off over-stretched staff.
Health New Zealand Te Whatu Ora officials indicated at annual review hearings in March that $1.43 billion is no longer enough to meet cost pressures, the doctors and dentists union said.
"Health has been underfunded for so long that it needs courageous leadership to give it the funds to deliver an equitable health system for all,” ASMS executive director Sarah Dalton said.
"This Budget falls short [and] leaves our health system treading water, our workforce over-stretched and patients left waiting longer and longer."
Dalton said funding of emergency department security is a good step but the underlying causes of many violent episodes stem from the long wait times due to staff shortages and hospital bed block.
03:37 pmTe Pāti Māori wants its own Parliament
As the Budget details were being released, Te Pāti Māori has released a statement saying it wants to start its own Māori Parliament and has issued a declaration of political independence it hopes people will sign.
It comes off the back of protests against the Government's policies affecting Māori today, with tens of thousands of people taking to the streets around the country.
In a statement, Te Pāti Māori said: “We will no longer let decisions made by this House determine our oranga [health]. The oranga of our people, our mokopuna [grandchildren], the land and te iwi Māori katoa [all the Māori people].
“We now begin the process of establishing our own Parliament. Our people will design what this looks like for us, nobody else.”
The party said this was "the type of transformation our people have been waiting for".
The party said today's protests were Māori telling the Government "enough is enough".
Read our full coverage of the protests here.
