Budget 2023: Some rabbits, a few more houses and a higher trust tax rate

The Kākā by Bernard Hickey · May 18, 2023 · 6m

TL;DR: The Labour Government has unveiled a couple of middle-class welfare policies in its last Budget before the October 14 election, which is on a knife edge and will be decided by a slither of median voters who will welcome $1.6 billion in spending on extra child-care subsidies and grants for home insulation and heat pumps.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson has tried in Budget 2023, his sixth as Finance Minister and his fifth ‘Wellbeing’ Budget, to walk a tightrope in the short-term between extra spending to win re-election, and a need to constrain fiscal stimulus to avoid adding…