This post will be updated by the Standardistas as the details of the Budget come out. If you have special knowledge of a field and spot something that we (and the mainstream media) are likely to miss, drop us a line at thestandardnz@gmail.com and we’ll put it up.
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[2:17]
Contributions to the Superannuation Fund have been suspended. Sheer madness when its making a fortune and assets are there to buy at historically low prices.
National is simply ideological opposed to superannuation and so opposed to its future funding (which is why they labelled it the Cullen Fund).
[2:22]
They’re suspending the Cullen Fund for 10 years. That’s getting up to the point where the Fund is meant to be making payments. It’s not a temporary suspension for a temporary recession. It’s a death sentence for the Superannuation Fund and so a deth knell for superannuation entitlements. All they’ve done is set the execution date for twenty years in the future.
[2:24]
And tax cuts suspended indefinitely.
[2:26]
Ah, health, the total over 4 years is $3 billion. $750 millon a year. The absolute bare minimum to maintain services
[2:38 (updated 3:01)]
Cuts:
The cuts – total appropriations 2008 and 2009 budgets:
ACC: $1.236 billion to $1.266 billion (below inflation)
Agriculture and forestry: $943 million to $249 million
Arts, culture, heritage: $292 million to $294 milliont (below inflation)
Attorney-General: $68 million to $66 million
Audit: $74 million to $73.7 million
Biosecurity: $188 million to $185.6 million
Community and voluntary sector: $58 million to $45 million
Conservation: $444 million to $419 million
Consumer affairs: $6.1 million to $5.9 million
Crown Research Institutes: $1.8 million to $1.1 million
Education: $11.220 billion to $11.500 billion (below inflation)
ERO: $31.5 million to $30 million
Emergency Management: $15.3 million to $12 million
Employment: $19 million to $15 million
Energy: $445.5 million to $250 million
Fisheries $153 million to $114 million
Food safety: $105 million to $100 million
Immigration: $202 million to $199 million
Justice: $410 million to $401 million
Lands: $173 millon to $154 million
Maori Affairs: $214 million to $180 million
Overseas Aid: $523 million to $500 million
Ombudsman: $8.3 million to $8 million
PI Affairs: $8.4 million to $7.5 million
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment: $3.2 million to $2.8 million
Police: $1,503 million to $1,503 million (below inflation)
Revenue: $7,000 million to $5,792 million
Security Intelligence: $36.9 million to $37.5 million
Senior citizens: $1.035 million to $1.035 million (below inflation)
Sport and recreation: $75 million to $67 million
Women’s Affairs: $4.9 million to $4.8 million
Youth development: $14.8 million to $14.6 million
A sea of cuts. We’ll delve into what specific programmes are going.
[2:42]
Well the tax cuts are gone, we knew that would happen. They are officially ‘deferred’ but to no certain date.
What’s the bet that they run on tax cuts in 2011? What else can they run on? If you’re a one-trick pony you’ve got to promise to deliver that trick. Even if you failed to go do last time.
The tax cuts should never have been promised in the first place. They were clearly unaffordable when National promised them in October last year and National should be ashamed of making a promise it knew it could never deliver. (Before you start, Labour’s smaller tax cut promises were made in May last year, before the crisis developed and were affordable at that time).
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