Happy Budget Day!

It was a very happy budget day here in Wellington– if you are into retirement savings, preschool, health care, business tax cuts, etc, etc. The current Labour Government released its 6th budget today, to great buzz, anticipation and fanfare – all worthy of an election year. The Finance Minister, Michael Cullen, kept the budget closely under wraps until his speech to Parliament this afternoon. I guess the closest US equivalent would be the State of the Union address, although even with that many of the initiatives are leaked ahead of time.

My friends at the Ministry of Social Development, snuck me into the MSD’s social sector “budget lockdown” this morning. Before the Finance Minister’s speech, the other cabinet ministers preview their pieces of the budget pie in briefings at MSD and Treasury. It is literally a “lock down” – to prevent any leaking, the audience is prevented from leaving the building until after the budget speech is given in Parliament (a full 4 hours -- so only for the serious wonks!). They went as far as to confiscate our cell phones and shut down the elevator on the floor where the briefing was being held. The Ministers of Social Development, Health, Education, Maori Affairs, NGOs, and Disability all spoke. Sure beats reading the papers! (Anyone who has read the local paper here will know what I mean…).