Budget 2010: Latest updates
Click here for full coverage and analysis, and reaction to the 2010 Budget
Click here for full coverage and analysis, and reaction to the 2010 Budget
The education sector has had to come up with more than half of the $1.9 billion to fund new education initiatives over the next four years.
The 2010 Budget is a lost opportunity and a massive broken promise, says the Labour Party's finance spokesman David Cunliffe.
The Govt's decision to remove recognition for fully qualified centres 'dumbs down' the sector, early childhood educators say.
The full text of Finance Minister Bill English's Budget 2010 speech to Parliament.
The Govt has allocated just under $500 million annually to health - $250m less a year than the increase in last year's budget.
The top income tax rate has been slashed to 33 cents as part of across the board tax cuts, with the Govt promising most NZers will be better off, despite a rise in GST.
The Budget avoids the potential trap of being too austere and fiscally virtuous too soon, when the recovery is still in a young, frost-tender stage.
New Zealanders earning over $50k will now be paying less tax than Australians after today's tax cuts.
"There is not much we would be critical of," says Business Roundtable executive director Roger Kerr. "The budget reveals sound steps but not step changes."
Owners of both commercial buildings and rental houses will no longer be able to claim depreciation on their investments.
NZ remains financially vulnerable, but there are positive signs emerging and the economy is on track to grow, Bill English says.
From October 1 all personal tax rates will be cut, ranging from 2 per cent for someone earning up to $14,000 to five per cent for high income earners.
If Labour were writing today's Budget, it would spend more than National to ensure the recovery from recession remained on track, says David Cunliffe.
Prime Minister John Key has heralded a sock-it-to-the-rich approach towards those who fiddle with their tax liability by sheltering income in trusts and companies.
Budget depreciation rule changes could smack the multibillion-dollar commercial property sector with most of a $1.3bn bill.
Income tax cuts for everyone will be announced in next week's Budget. They will take effect in October and cost about $2.3 billion a year.