Today's Budget "won't be a big spend up" according to economic and political commentator Bernard Hickey.
Speaking to Breakfast this morning, Hickey said the Labour Government are desperate to keep their public debt levels down.
He said this will be at the forefront of the Government's mind today in order to appease voters five months out from the election.
"The core thing about New Zealand voters, the ones who matter, the median voters who own homes, is all they care about is house prices and interest rates.
"The more public debt that's taken on, the slightly higher mortgage rates go, so less public debt means slightly lower mortgage rates which means happy median voters."
Hickey said the Budget is sending a message to the public that they're "fiscally disciplined".
Asked if there'll be any kind of sweetener in the Budget, he said there may be something small.
"There'll be something, some sort of slightly scraggy rabbit, that is used to promote for the election but we've already heard from the prime minister and the Finance Minister that it'll be very targeted.
"Nothing like in previous years when there were payments to everyone and every small business, the Government is in batten down the hatches mode, which I actually think is a mistake in the long run, but there is no long run in politics."
Hickey said from now on, "everything" is about the election.
He said it were up to him, he'd be focusing on housing and climate change.
"We've got a housing crisis, we need a million new refitted homes, we've got a climate crisis, we need to substantially shift our traffic from roads onto bikes and walking and buses and trains," Hickey said.
The Budget will be released from 2pm today. You can follow all the developments on TVNZ1's Budget special from 2pm, and at 1News.co.nz
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