NEW REPORT: Wellbeing Budget 2026 - The $13.5 Billion Lost Surplus
The New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union can reveal new analysis showing that if Government spending had simply remained at the level set by Jacinda Ardern’s 2019 Wellbeing Budget — adjusted for inflation, GDP and population growth — the Crown accounts would currently be running an estimated $13.5 billion OBEGAL surplus in 2026/27.
Commenting on the release of the new briefing paper, The Wellbeing Surplus, Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams said:
“The political establishment keeps talking about getting back to surplus someday in the future. Our analysis shows New Zealand could be back in surplus right now.”
“New Zealand could return to surplus immediately simply by using Jacinda Ardern’s 2019 Wellbeing Budget as the baseline. Back then, National slammed it as reckless spending. Now, compared to today’s permanently bloated government, it looks like fiscal heaven.”
“COVID may have justified temporary deficits. It does not justify permanently embedding emergency-era spending into the machinery of government years after the emergency ended.”
“That’s resulted in a u-turn by the Taxpayers’ Union. We now want to Make Wellbeing Great Again to get the books back to black, right now.”
“Nicola Willis inherited Labour’s mess. But her Budgets have continued treating Labour’s COVID spending binge as the new normal.”
The Wellbeing Surplus finds that using the 2019 Budget as the spending baseline would see:
“The Coalition was elected promising spending restraint and a smaller state. If Jacinda Ardern’s 2019 Wellbeing Budget was considered compassionate and generous then, why is returning to equivalent spending levels now supposedly ‘extreme’?”
“This paper proves New Zealand does not need so-called ‘austerity’ to return to surplus. What we need is political courage.”
Commenting on the release of the new briefing paper, The Wellbeing Surplus, Taxpayers’ Union Executive Director Jordan Williams said:
“The political establishment keeps talking about getting back to surplus someday in the future. Our analysis shows New Zealand could be back in surplus right now.”
“New Zealand could return to surplus immediately simply by using Jacinda Ardern’s 2019 Wellbeing Budget as the baseline. Back then, National slammed it as reckless spending. Now, compared to today’s permanently bloated government, it looks like fiscal heaven.”
“COVID may have justified temporary deficits. It does not justify permanently embedding emergency-era spending into the machinery of government years after the emergency ended.”
“That’s resulted in a u-turn by the Taxpayers’ Union. We now want to Make Wellbeing Great Again to get the books back to black, right now.”
“Nicola Willis inherited Labour’s mess. But her Budgets have continued treating Labour’s COVID spending binge as the new normal.”
The Wellbeing Surplus finds that using the 2019 Budget as the spending baseline would see:
- cumulative surpluses between now and 2030 totalling approximately $83.8 billion;
- equivalent to roughly an extra $49,366 per household in New Zealanders’ bank accounts compared to New Zealand’s current fiscal track.
- and debt interest costs falling significantly over time as debt repayment reduced future borrowing costs.
“The Coalition was elected promising spending restraint and a smaller state. If Jacinda Ardern’s 2019 Wellbeing Budget was considered compassionate and generous then, why is returning to equivalent spending levels now supposedly ‘extreme’?”
“This paper proves New Zealand does not need so-called ‘austerity’ to return to surplus. What we need is political courage.”
Do you like this post?
Showing 1 reaction