In this month's feature, Craig discusses the upcoming Budget. On its own terms, the government's economic plan isn't working - economic growth is stalled, the cost of living has not been addressed, and the fiscal objectives of the government are getting further out of reach.
In this context, the Minister of Finance is in a tight spot. We hope that the Minister reassesses the government's plan and changes course. However, that seems unlikely, and so the Minister might look to play a few tricks that make things look better temporarily. Craig explores what these could be. The NZCTU will be providing its regular annual analysis of the Budget in June, so watch out for that.
In our regular updates, we examine the March 2026 quarter data for employment, wages, union membership, consumer inflation, and household living-costs inflation. We also look at the December 2025 GDP data. There were some small signs of improvement in the job market earlier this year, but it remains very weak. Unfortunately, the US-Israeli attacks on Iran have now thrown further doubt on a recovery.
