Budget Reaction

John Armstring compares Fran O’Sullivan says the Budget which again displays shallow thinking as far as spurring short-term economic growth goes.

David Skilling from the NZ Institute says if the Budget was intended to underline the Government’s commitment to economic transformation, we are in trouble.

The Press calls it a timid budget “with the usual grand rhetoric about transforming the economy, raising productivity, strengthening families and enhancing national identity, but no sense that this administration really does have the ideas to achieve these goals”.

The Dominion Post concludes “there is money for tax cuts, and there would be even more if the Government took a closer look at some of the loopy schemes ministers have okayed over the past few years.

The decision not to cut taxes is a political one based on the belief that Dr Cullen and his colleagues know how to spend taxpayers’ money better than they do themselves”.

Not quite universally panned, but not far from it.