And one of the budget’s central – but little-recognised – insights is that Ardern faces a nasty conundrum about how to handle the disparity between poor households and middle New Zealanders.
This will include significant reductions in hardship for New Zealand’s indigenous Māori population and Pacific peoples, both overrepresented in the poverty statistics.ĭoes this put the government on track to meet its extremely ambitious targets? Not quite. Its headline move was an increase in benefits of between $32 and $55 a week, which is projected to lift a further 20,000-30,000 children out of poverty. Thursday’s budget, though, set down a marker. And it didn’t look like the prime minister’s cautious, softly-softly approach was going to get us there. But the economic impact of coronavirus, combined with the need to help families in progressively deeper levels of poverty, meant far more would be needed in future.
It was a good start, and the government looked on track to meet its short-term 2021 targets.
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