Budget Day is always a flurry of overwhelming information. So, we got a professor of economics to explain what people should know about yesterday's Budget.
Nicola Willis's first Budget as Finance Minister was dominated by tax cuts — who was getting them, how much they were getting, and where the money for them was coming from.
But plenty of other information about the Government's spending plans was also released.
Matt Roskruge, an economics professor at Massey University, was in the Budget briefing yesterday and helped break down the big stuff for those of us who weren't.
First, those tax cuts
Nicola Willis revealed the National-led Government's first budget in Parliament today. (Source: 1News)
After months of speculation, Willis confirmed yesterday that the Government would be delivering the tax cuts it had promised.
Roskruge said a small group stands to get significant tax relief.
"[The Government] has been really clever in that it's combined the income tax announcement with the early childhood education rebate, so they get some really sensational figures like $250 per fortnight for some whānau," he said.
"But the number of people that are going to get that is tiny. Most people are going to see a fairly marginal benefit."
If you're wondering how the Government has been able to afford this tax relief, it has much to do with the public service cuts that have dominated headlines.
"Quite bluntly, [the Government] has taken the axe to public services," Roskruge said.
Other savings have come from ending initiatives brought in by the previous government.
Debate in recent months has also turned to whether these tax cuts will push up inflation.
"A lot of people are arguing they're not going to be inflationary, but I think they are," Roskruge said.
"There's quite a lot of pressure on retail and quite a lot of pressure on prices.
"I think if people have more money in their pocket, then that's going to get absorbed almost straight away in higher prices because retailers and businesses are really hurting, and they need to pass on some of the cost pressure they're facing."
The Budget's big winners
The education spend was meaty, Roskruge said.
"There is money in there for new classrooms as well as refurbishing older classrooms," he said.
Health also got a large chunk of money in the Budget, but Roskruge said almost all of that spending is going into cost pressure.
Cost pressure is the money the health sector said it needs just to continue delivering services.
It means more health workers in hospitals and more teachers in schools, Benedict Collins reports. (Source: 1News)
"It's a big financial windfall for health, but it's not really going into anything more than keeping the lights on."
Funding for the police was also significant, Roskruge said, with plans to add many more frontline officers.
"On the whole, there's a big focus on shifting towards frontline staff," he said.
"What I'm a little bit sceptical of is they're getting rid of back office staff and employing frontline staff — but somebody still needs to do the work that back office staff did."
The Budget's big losers
Roskruge said there was nothing for Māori development in the Budget.
"All of the existing Māori development initiatives are just getting run out; they're finished or finishing in the next year," he said.
"There's no new money for Māori. In fact, Māori, pretty much apart from an extension of the funding for Te Matatini, they were pretty much erased from the Budget — Pasifika [were] as well.
The nationwide day of action was called as a protest against the Coalition Government's policies affecting Māori. (Source: 1News)
"A whole lot of the departments are getting the money they had set aside for Te Tiriti education or cultural competency taken away from them."
Cancer patients have also lost out on an election promise.
National had pledged to fund 13 new cancer drugs, but Willis said it wasn't possible in this Budget.
The economic outlook
1News Political Editor Maiki Sherman and 1News reporters share their thoughts fresh from the Budget lock-up. (Source: 1News)
Economic forecasts are always released at the same time as the Budget — and those numbers were gloomy, Roskruge said.
"Treasury said that the economy is shrinking, and inflation is high," he said.
"They've said things are bad, but they think things are going to get better fast, particularly from 2026/2027, but there was a lot of scepticism in the room.
"If it happens, awesome. I think we'd all be really happy to be wrong about this, but in the room, the feeling was that the return to surplus was overly optimistic."
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