Finance Minister Nicola Willis today has made it clear
that austerity is on the horizon for health and other public
services with little new money being made available in next
month’s Budget.
In today’s pre-Budget speech the
Finance Minister announced that the operating allowance,
which funds new operating spending, will be halved to $1.3
billion.
“This is an irresponsible recipe for failure
in health and public services which are already in desperate
need of additional investment after reckless cuts and the
failure to invest,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National
Secretary for the Public Service Association for Te Pūkenga
Here Tikanga Mahi.
“Budget 2025 should be about
investing in the services New Zealanders need, particularly
health with rising costs of care and an ageing
population.
“But this government remains hell bent on
its reckless ideological crusade to downsize our public
health system regardless of the
consequences.
“It made a clear choice in
last year’s Budget to cut taxes and now the chickens are
coming home to roost with the Government’s finances more
constrained than they should be.
“Nicola
Willis talks about ‘limited fiscal means’ forcing cuts
to the operating allowance – well, she is the author of
those, and it is a choice that she made.
“The PSA will
strongly resist any further threats to the jobs of public
service or health workers.”
“This is a recipe for
austerity which history tells us does not work, it just
creates more misery, and New Zealanders will pay that price
from this approach.
“Budget 2025 will be a sad
indictment of the Government’s economic
management.”
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