Briefly in Aotearoa’s political economy on Monday, January 19:
The Lead: PM Christopher Luxon is expected to announce National’s Election Year slogan will be “Fixing the basics and building the future,” in his State of the Nation address due early this afternoon, rather than any major new policy announcements or an election date. The Post-$/NZ Herald-$/NewstalkZB/Stuff
The Sidebar: The problem for Luxon is his Government has actually reduced capital expenditure spending in its first two years and Treasury is forecasting further falls in the coming years. Hear and see more detail and analysis below and in the podcast above.
Elsewhere in the news: The CTU’s annual opt-in survey of workers found 58.4% of those 3,578 workers surveyed from January 4-12 felt their incomes had not kept up with living costs over the last year, with 61.8% saying the cost of living was one of their three top concerns in election year, while 58.5% chose health and 37% chose pay and work rights.
In the Scoop of the Day: Thomas Coughlan reports for NZ Herald-$ that Finance Minister Nicola Willis is planning to further tighten the reins of health spending in Budget 2026, reverting Health NZ’s budget planning cycle back to one year from three and she had told ministers preparing their Budget bids to “start from the presumption that there isn’t going to be more cash coming in”.
In the Chart Pack of the Day: The latest economic data continues to show a frustrating combination of stronger business and manufacturing confidence and output, but weak consumer spending and cost of living pressures.
Today’s Deep-dive of the Day is Hayden Donnell’s commentary for The Spinoff titled: “All the bogus reasons for National’s latest housing U-turn.”
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