If NZ taxpayers have provided a businessman with a sheep farm in compensation for his loss, it raises many more questions than Minister Murray McCully has been inclined to answer.

Budget 2015: Find out about our up-to-minute Budget 2015 coverage throughout the week.

Australia and New Zealands' Budgets speak volumes of the strength of their respective economies and their citizens' state of mind.

Experts say when Finance Minister Bill English stands up to announce his spending plans, there could be something in the Budget to help your pocket.

For people other than residential property investors, Thursday's Budget is expected to be a nickel-and-dime affair, writes Brian Fallow.

Next week's Budget will outline plans by the Government to develop its own land holdings in Auckland in a bid to boost supply.

The Government has released its financial position ahead of next week's budget.

The petition comes as the Salvation Army said it fed 9.5 per cent more people last year in its Midland region than it did in the year before.

Partners accompanying MPs on an official trip to Europe will not add to the total cost - despite an arrangement that enables their flights to be paid for by taxpayers.

The return to 10-year passports could come about in around six months' time, according to the Prime Minister.

Five MPs and their partners will jet off tomorrow on a $138,000 tour of Europe led by Parliament's Speaker, David Carter.

New Zealanders are set to enjoy 10-year passports once again - but at a price.

Politicians have passed a law change to claw back their hefty pay hike, but will still be able cash up any perks that are scrapped in the future.

The prospect of hefty rates increases are going down like a lead balloon in feedback on the new 10-year budget.

The first of a two-part series wrapping up the Herald’s coverage of Auckland’s spending plan, Bernard Orsman asks local board leaders what they think of the proposals.

Labour says former Revenue Minister Peter Dunne should answer for a blowout in the cost of implementing child support changes to $163 million.

Peter Lyons writes: When we eventually achieve the budget surplus we need to recognise it has been paid for by many of those who had the least to start with.

Can Bill English continue to keep all of National's fiscal balls in the air? And for how long before he drops one?

The Government's widely touted return to surplus is likely to take a further 12 months and is largely reliant on cuts to spending.

Opposition parties say new Treasury forecasts that the Crown's books will not return to surplus this year as promised by the Government are an embarrassment.

Costs associated with the Christchurch rebuild account for the bulk of $214 million of unauthorised public spending in the past year, according to a new review.

Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce has confirmed it would be harder to justify government funding if the America's Cup is Bermuda-bound in 2017.

New Zealand's fiscal outlook is not dire, but threatens to become so if the issues of an ageing population and poor-quality government spending are not addressed, says the New Zealand Initiative.

The Ministry of Social Development has signalled a need to “explore options relating to the age of eligibility” for NZ superannuation, and wants a review of benefit rates to tackle child poverty.

It was advertised as the Labour Party's last big policy of the election campaign. So small was it in size and so opaque was its intention that Labour's motive was anyone's guess.

This week a nation heads to the polls for one of the most important votes in its history, Liam Dann writes.

As expected, the National Party's announcement yesterday on proposed tax cuts was short on specifics and long on conditionality.