NZ Budget 2021: billions more for benefits, but one eye on the bottom line

By Jennifer Curtin, Professor of Politics and Policy, University of Auckland
David Hall, Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences and Public Policy, Auckland University of Technology
Michael Fletcher, Senior Research Fellow, Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
Nina Ives, Climate change PhD student, Auckland University of Technology

New Zealand has now had three “Wellbeing Budgets”: the prototype in 2019, the COVID-19 “Rebuilding Together” version in 2020, and today Finance Minister Grant Robertson announced the Labour government is “Securing our Recovery”.

With Labour governing with an absolute majority,…

Read complete article

~	UN rights chief urges Georgia to scrap ‘foreign influence’ bill

~	Despite a tenfold increase in ADHD prescriptions, too many New Zealanders are still going without

~	Meaningful engagement is the key to achieving Bill C-226’s goal of ending environmental racism in Canada

~	Season two of Heartbreak High makes diversity feel ‘banal’. This is its strength

~	Kate Millett pioneered the term ‘sexual politics’ and explained the links between sex and power. Her book changed my life

~	AI can now generate entire songs on demand. What does this mean for music as we know it?

~	Why is cancer called cancer? We need to go back to Greco-Roman times for the answer

~	Clearing the elective surgery backlog will take more than one budget. It’ll need major reform

~	Electric vehicles will start to cut emissions and improve air quality in our cities – but only once they’re common

~	4 things our schools should do now to help prevent gender-based violence