Opinion - Budgets are not “lolly scrambles”, especially when New Zealand households continue to struggle with a high debt burden, writes Rob Hosking.
Finance Minister Steve Joyce gets ready to open the books on the this year’s plan. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King
“Lolly scramble.” “Budget goodies.” Does anyone else find these phrases irritating? Infantilising? Or even alarming?
Budgets are not magic boxes.
They’re a set of priorities for the government of the day: they’re also a chance for the opposition to highlight its own, presumably different, set of priorities.
But they are not “lolly scrambles” and finance ministers are not benign, big daddy Father Christmases doling out “goodies” to humble, grateful and, a…
Read the full article at: http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/on-the-inside/331497/budget-2017-more-than-just-a-lolly-scramble
