Prime Minister John Key said 500,000 New Zealand children would benefit from the Budget in some way and said he was proud to lead a party that was the first to lift benefits in 40 years. He said it was "compassionate conservatism and I'm proud of it". He said he had told New Zealanders on election night he intended "to govern for all New Zealanders".
As expected, the 2015 Budget sparked a storm on Twitter from both the left and the right.
Airlines and tourist businesses are disappointed at a new border levy that will push up the cost of a return flight out of New Zealand by around $22.
Prime Minister John Key is "proud" of the Budget, which he says will benefit 500,000 New Zealand children.
Newstalk ZB host Larry Williams says today's Budget shows a lack of courage.
The interactive visualisation shows where the government money is spent. Readers can see the data by department and functional classification.
Retailers will be disappointed the Government isn't taxing purchases on overseas websites, Retail NZ says.
Aaron Quintal, tax partner with Ernst & Young, says this year's is a sensible Budget, with a hint of boring about it.
Mr English has set aside $52 million in contingency funding to fund work with private sector developers to build affordable houses on under-utilised Crown land - Housing and Building Minister Nick Smith will begin meeting developers on May 29 to discuss potential partnerships. Mr English said it was likely that iwi would get first right of refusal on some of the land.
One of the Budget surprises was the introduction of a levy on travellers leaving and entering New Zealand to boost biosecurity funding by $100 million a year. The $6 for departing passengers and $16 for arriving passengers will be added to the cost of an airline ticket. The other Budget surprise was the axing of the $1000 kickstart payment for people when they sign up to Kiwisaver which is estimated to save $500 million over four years.
The Budget has allocated a further $50 million injection into the Whanau Ora social services programme despite the Auditor-General raising red flags about spending and operations.
New Zealand's intelligence agencies will get a funding boost as concerns rise about the Islamic State (Isis), cyber-attacks and other
Bill English's seventh Budget is a give-and-take Budget.
Every budget looks at historical trends and forecasts the future, but what about the history of the forecasts?
A warning about the potential extinction of New Zealand’s national bird has prompted Government to boost funding to conservation efforts.
Special education and early childhood education have received a boost in funding as an extra $687 million is invested in education.
Beneficiary families and low-income working families will get a boost of up to $25 a week as part of a child hardship package which is the centre-piece of Bill English's seventh Budget. It is the first increase in core benefits, apart from inflations adjustments, since 1972 and will affect 110,000 families.
Brian Fallow, economics editor for NZ Herald on the 2015 budget.
After six years of selling state assets, increasing GST, cutting funding to student allowances and other state services, the dream has finally been realised, writes Ben Uffindell.
Housing Minister Nick Smith says thousands of new homes will be built as part of a planned affordable housing development on vacant Crown land.
The size of the deficit distracts from a more meaningful question: what should government spending and taxes be as a fraction of the national income?
I love tax cuts, I want one, I hope Bill gets the money to pay for them, writes Mike Hosking. But between now and 2017, he has to find a hell of a lot of coin to foot that bill.