Budget: Benefits increase
Audrey Young (Herald): If not now, then when for beneficiaries? (paywalled)
Max Rashbrooke (Stuff): Labour’s years of caution are finally paying off
Stuff: Editorial – Revenge on the ‘mother of all Budgets’
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Ruth Richardson calls Jacinda Ardern and Grant Robertson’s budget attack a ‘cheap shot’
Te Rina Triponel (Herald): Budget 2021: Beneficiary advocacy group slams Govt, says benefit increase is ‘weak’
Claire Trevett (Herald): PM Jacinda Ardern unrepentant about Budget boost for beneficiaries over workers
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Blockbuster Beneficiary Booster Budget – bold but necessary
Tova O’Brien (Newshub): Budget 2021 benefit bump hailed as ‘wonderful’ but scepticism remains over ending child poverty
1News: Children’s Commissioner: Budget benefit rises a move towards ending child poverty, but more needed now
Lynley Ward (Herald): Solo parents react after Government $3.3billion welfare injection
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Labour to boost benefits by up to $55 a week in explicit push to reverse 1990s cuts
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): Benefits boost in ‘quest to reduce inequality’
Jamie Ensor (Newshub): Government delivering major benefit boost in line with recommendations
Sarah Robson (RNZ): Benefits to increase by up to $55 a week
Nadine Porter (Stuff): Surprise increase in benefits welcomed by those most in need
Budget: General
Audrey Young (Herald): This was the easy Budget for Grant Robertson (paywalled)
Matthew Hooton (Herald): Lessons from the Budget and the one issue that may derail Jacinda Ardern (paywalled)
Fran O’Sullivan (Herald): Look to the future, don’t dwell on rewriting the past (paywalled)
Brad Olsen (Stuff): Budget 2021 shows higher spending, but with restraint
Bernard Hickey: Budget 2021 special: Righting some wrongs. A bit.
Raf Manji (Stuff): Welcome focus on reducing inequality needs to continue
Thomas Manch (Stuff): The winners and losers in a welfare-focused Budget
Richard Harman: A Labour of love (paywalled)
Liam Dann (Herald): Budget 2021 geared to keep ‘better-than-expected’ story rolling (paywalled)
Peter Dunne: Grant Robertson’s three factors in the Budget
Herald: Editorial: Budget 2021 – A very Labour Budget in the time of Covid 19 coronavirus (paywalled)
ODT: Editorial – Robertson’s shrewd Budget
Jessica Mutch McKay (1News): The year of the ‘Benefit Budget’ with welfare, Maori getting significant boost
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Grant Robertson’s deep red budget seeks to ‘right a wrong’ from 30 years ago
Heather du Plessis-Allan (Newstalk ZB): Budget gets a ‘B’ for Boring
Brian Fallow (Herald): Grant Robertson plays it down the middle despite opportunity to invest (paywalled)
Jennifer Curtin, David Hall, Michael Fletcher, and Nina Ives (The Conversation): NZ Budget 2021: billions more for benefits, but one eye on the bottom line
Herald: The verdicts from Paula Bennett, Sue Bradford, Neale Jones and Jon Stokes
Herald: Experts and commentators rate Grant Robertson’s Budget
Ben Thomas (Stuff): Blockbuster Budget is Robertson’s answer to the ‘Mother of All Budgets’
Mike Houlahan (ODT): Labour rewards its faithful
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): On balance, a Labour government (paywalled)
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Labour spends big on benefits, health in its first unleashed Budget
Felippe Rodrigues and Kate Newton (Stuff): Hey big spending: The Budget in five charts
Derek Cheng (Herald): The 10 things you need to know
Hannah Kronast (Newshub): ACT leader David Seymour slams ‘la-la Budget’, compares it to an episode of That ’70s Show
Brigitte Morten (RNZ): Budget 21 is a ‘cheugy’, living in the past budget
Susan Edmunds (Stuff): Business ‘overlooked’ as Government focus turns to benefits and health sector
Jason Walls (Herald): The ‘La La Budget’ vs ‘Broken Compass Budget’ – Opposition battles for unofficial Budget name
Bryce Edwards: Cartoons about Budget 2021
Budget: Housing
Hamish Rutherford (Herald): Treasury sees housing market going from raging bull to Goldilocks zone (paywalled)
Anne Gibson (Herald): Budget 2021: From 19.1% to 0.9% – could house price growth collapse by that much? (paywalled)
Melanie Carroll (Stuff): Sharp house price adjustment coming, says Finance Minister
Brent Melville (BusinessDesk): Not enough emphasis on housing (paywalled)
Priscilla Dickinson (Newshub): Slower house price growth could inhibit spending despite bigger benefits – economist
Budget: Maori
Amelia Wade (Newshub): Housing spend big win for Labour’s Maori caucus after crossfire
Katarina Williams (Stuff): Moving the dial on Maori housing
Jade Kake (Stuff): Budget 2021 gives welcome boost to Maori housing
Budget: Social insurance proposal
Henry Cooke (Stuff): Government announces plan to create ‘unemployment insurance’: but isn’t funding it yet
Budget: Health
Emma Russell (Herald): Cystic fibrosis fighter livid at Pharmac’s budget
Bridie Witton (Stuff): Pharmac boost of $200m ‘nothing short of disgraceful’
Jenna Lynch (Newshub): Anger, f-bomb thrown around as advocates react to Pharmac’s Budget 2021 boost
Mandy Te (Stuff): Hundreds more people to get publicly funded cochlear implants
Budget: Climate change
Hamish Cardwell (RNZ): Climate groups say Budget 2021 doesn’t go far enough to reach goals
Jamie Morton (Herald): Shaw responds to ‘loose change’ charges over climate spend
Mike Burrell (Stuff): Accounting for our climate future with the money spent today
Hamish Cardwell (RNZ): The environmental investments
Olivia Wannan and Eloise Gibson (Stuff): EV-buying subsidies resurrected by $300m boost
Budget: Education
Lee Kenny (Stuff): More classrooms welcomed but not enough cash for staff, unions say
Dubby Henry (Herald): Schools welcome focus on child poverty, struggling students
Newstalk ZB: Education – small increases for schools, early childhood, more for school buildings
Economy and work
John Bishop (Stuff): ‘Exceptional circumstances’ proved anything but with 70s pay freeze
Herald: Editorial: Dare we dream of a higher-wage economy? (paywalled)
Rob Stock (Stuff): Your MPs’ KiwiSaver choices laid bare
Budget: Other
Thomas Coughlan (Stuff): Let’s Get Wellington Moving over-budget, may not get finished, Treasury warns
Adam Pearse (Herald): Where has the Covid fund gone – $5b left in $62b recovery fund (paywalled)
Jamie Gray (Herald): Credit rating agencies Moody’s, S&P Global’s take on New Zealand’s fiscal position (paywalled)
International relations
Robert Ayson (The Interpreter): Imprisoning narratives: Morrison, Ardern and China
Covid
Adam Pearse (Herald): University of Waikato study warns of inequitable vaccine rollout
Charlie Mitchell (Stuff): The scientist and the rabbit hole: How epidemiologist Simon Thornley became an outcast of his profession
Other
Chris Trotter: Getting our politics sorted
Please share this article so that others can discover The BFD