If you listen to 25th May, 2017, you will hear what a government’s Budget means. The Minister of Finance, Grant Robertson, read the Budget in Parliament yesterday afternoon. It took him 40 minutes to read it which is a much shorter time than some Ministers of Finance have taken in the past. Perhaps this was a short Budget.
In fact, it is the first of three Budgets, one for each year they will be the government until the next election. Most of this Budget was predictable: more money for housing, hospital and school buildings, money for District Health Boards (DHBs), some money for midwives. However, there was disappointment for teachers and nurses. They will need to wait for next year’s Budget or for 2020, the year of the next election when we can expect more promises if voters continue to support the same government.
This government will give more money for early childhood education, and more for special education (for children with disabilities). Free doctors’ visits will now be extended for children until the age of 13 instead of 12. Families on low incomes will pay cheaper doctors’ fees.
The Department of Conservation, DOC, will have extra funding and maybe some of that will be to provide more facilities, like toilets, for people tramping in native forests. Most of the money, however, will be used for predator control, to get rid of possums which destroy native trees, and to get rid of rats, mice and other small animals which eat the eggs and chicks of native birds.
For Big Business, there is money, in the form of tax credits, for R&D, Research and Development, to encourage innovation (new ideas), especially in technology.
Finally, Grant Robertson said the government has decided to keep a big surplus – $3.1bn – just in case. He was thinking the government might need a lot of money in case of a big disaster like another major earthquake or volcanic eruption.
Vocabulary
• predictable (adj)– just what was expected
• midwives – look after women during their pregnancy and birth
• predators – animals which eat other animals
• tax credits – they pay less tax if they spend money on R&D
• surplus (adj, n) – extra money not needed at the moment
• in case – if something happens in the future; in case + verb e.g. take an umbrella in case it rains; in case + noun e.g. take an umbrella in case of rain later