Finance Minister Nicola Willis has revealed her third Budget at Parliament today, outlining how much the coalition Government will spend and where it will go.
Here are some of the main points to emerge.
- Government books are forecast to return to surplus in 2028-29 – a year earlier that previously forecast
- New prudential levy on banks, non-bank deposit takers, insurers and others, to cover costs of services by the Reserve Bank – expected to recover $209m over four years
- Nearly $70m for between 1800 and 2250 social homes over three years from 2028-29
- $1.773b to extend the Waikato Expressway SH1 - the Cambridge to Piarere Road of National Significance
- $400m set aside for state highway resilience projects, to keep vital routes open during and after severe weather
- $294m over four years to support rollout of new planning to environmental management system that replaces RMA
- $5.8b in new health operating funding across forecast period
- Lowering eligibility age for National Bowel Screening Programme to 56
Budget 2026: Key announcements, winners and trade-offs explained, watch on TVNZ+
- $153.6m for Health NZ to expand national cyber security monitoring, strengthening data security, and IT upgrades
- SuperGold card: $36.4m in operating funding and $6.5m in capital over four years to allow users to upgrade card so it can be used as primary ID – in both physical and digital form
- $44.9m to implement new Arms Act and establish Firearms and Safety and Education NZ
- Councils to receive payments based on proportion of the national average new dwelling consent value
- Increase the amount of net income a non-for-profit can earn without paying tax from $1000 to $10,000
- Donation tax credit scheme – eligible donations capped at $100,000 a year
- Increasing number of Trades Academy places from 10,000 to 20,000 over the next four years – $69m
- $48m over four years to support sustainability of Māori media, and $10m over five years of reprioritised funding for Te Māori Tū
- Increased subsidy rates for early childhood services to come in July this year, instead of January 2027
- $447m for Corrections to manage increasing number of prisoners, $50m for frontline police – part of $1.1b uplift in operating funding for Corrections, Customs, Police and Justice.
Watch: Budget special on TVNZ+
SHARE ME