Incremental and pragmatic, New Zealand’s fifth Wellbeing Budget tries to balance cost-of-living support with huge long-term investment challenges – all without frightening the inflation horses.
In this podcast, @michellegrattan canvasses the budget with Treasurer @JEChalmers, Shadow Treasurer @AngusTaylorMP and The Conversation's politics + society editor @amandadunn10
A strong revenue flow, including from a pick-up in wages, appears to have made it possible for the government to do somewhat more on welfare payments than it originally intended
From the late 1960s to the early 1980s, more unionised workforces from Europe to Aotearoa New Zealand fought hard to keep wages abreast with inflation. But it’s unlikely that could happen now.
Initiatives like the federal government’s new grocery rebate are only a small step towards ending food insecurity in Canada. A broader guaranteed basic income is long overdue.
The Fed’s campaign of rate hikes is showing more signs of having the intended effect of slowing the economy – but that may be bad news for those who lose their jobs or have a harder time finding one.
Peter Martin, Crawford School of Public Policy, Australian National University
More than one million borrowers are set to come off ultra-low fixed mortgage rates this year and next, meaning the full effect of the ten rate rises to date is yet to be felt.