About $4 billion of savings from "reprioritisations" is earmarked to boost struggling government departments, Finance Minister Grant Robertson has revealed.
Robertson made the comments at a Wellington Chamber of Commerce annual pre-Budget breakfast held at the Beehive's banquet hall on Thursday morning.
He said as part of the Government's repriortisations - one of Chris Hipkins' first moves as prime minister - ministers had been tasked with finding savings within their agencies' existing budgets
"The outcome of this exercise is that Budget 2023 will include $4 billion of savings and reprioritisations over the four year forecast period.
"We will detail in full what makes up this number when the Budget is released, but to be clear, these savings have been found across a wide range of areas, some of which have been well publicised already."
They included closing contingencies the Government was not convinced were still needed, reassessing the forecast requirements of government departments and returning as savings underspends from existing initiatives, he said.
Robertson said this year's Budget, due for release on May 18, would have four themes - addressing cost of living pressures, the continuation of key services, recovery and resilience and fiscal sustainability.
He said some would suggest inflation meant the Government could afford to do "any number of things, including tax cuts".
"This might be a convenient political line to run, but it is not an economic policy appropriate to this time in New Zealand."
He said things that had be reprioritised might be "important" but "ultimately discretionary".
"I stand by our approach to Covid that saved lives and livelihoods, and now is the time to move back to a more sustainable fiscal position."
He also flagged the Budget would not contain "significant cuts to core services to austerity levels" as it would have "long-term consequences for people and communities".
"I am not prepared to do that."
Robertson told those gathered he did not "go around telling people that spending on public services will go up, public debt will go down and taxes will be cut, all at the same time".
"That fiscal Bermuda Triangle is the domain of the Opposition, and I don’t believe it is either realistic or credible."
The line was met with a small laugh from the room.
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