Editorial: Caution overload in Budget

If you are a smoker who owns a boat/bach, has a student loan and small children in childcare, this Budget is probably going to adversely affect you.

Overall, Bill English's Budget was everything everyone thought it would be - nothing for no one. Then again, maybe I am being a tad unfair as it was not quite a zero Budget. There was some new spending, but nothing to get excited about.

This is especially true if you are looking for a job or are a small business battling to pay wages, as there is nothing to stimulate growth in the economy.

It is this lack of interest in stimulating growth in our economy and single-minded focus on repaying debt that has come in for the most criticism from opposition parties.

Labour leader David Shearer was particularly scathing, saying the Budget showed "zero aspiration", while Greens co-leader Russel Norman went a step further, describing it as "a failure for the economy and a failure for our people".

These are difficult times we are in and the days of New Zealand being master of its own destiny are long gone. As we know, nowadays a financial crisis in Greece can have a direct impact on our economy (and has).

I certainly would not want to be steering the ship these days as decisions made now will have ramifications for us in the short term and longer term. Part of me admires the way the Government is sticking to its guns and insisting we focus on reducing our debt.

Many say the Budget is a sensible one, but I think it is probably a bit too cautious. It might be slightly risky, but I think a little bit of inflation is worth it for the sake of growth.

Mr English, who popped in for a chat a few weeks ago and impressed me with his clarity of thought, told Parliament yesterday that the Government was still responsibly managing its finances. He said everything was on track for it to post an operating surplus in 2014/2015.

Treasury has estimated that that surplus will be about $197million, which isn't really that much and does make you think - what if they have got it wrong? What if they miscalculated by $250million? Will all the pain and belt tightening we have endured have been worth it or will our economy have come to a virtual, grinding halt by then? The skills drain to Australia is already a red-hot issue and we certainly don't want people losing faith in this country because they can't get a job or, worse still, can't sustain their little family business employing five or so people.

In the regions we also live closer to the margins so economic recessions do seem to bite a little bit more than in the Big Smoke, so it is important for there to be growth in our local economy.

Let's just hope two zero Budgets achieve the goal of ridding us of our debt, but let's also hope our economy does manage to grow a little bit in the meantime.