When debt reduction trumps cash for renters

Details emerging from this year’s Budget process are making clear how the Government’s priorities and choices matched with those voters who are home-owners in the suburbs with children and cars, rather than renters. Photo: Lynn Grieveson / The Kākā

TL;DR: The Government decided during the Budget process to prioritise lower deficits and lower Government debt over providing extra cash for renting families, assessing that was better for keeping pressure off inflation and mortgage rates.

That was a decision focused on the interests of older home-owners with families in the suburbs who needed the help less, but were more important as an electoral bloc that Labour needed to win a third term.

News elsewhere in our political economy this morning

• A survey shows almost half of young people, most of whom rent, go without medical care or transport because of cash shortages, while over a third go without food.

• Thanks to a challenge by Lawyers for Climate Action, the High Court has forced the Government to review its decision from late last year to prioritise lower fuel prices over the need to lower climate emissions.

• National looks set to relax or remove Labour’s partial ban on non-residents buying residential land if it wins the election on October 14, which is now 88 days away.

Paying subscribers can see much more of my detail and analysis on these political economy issues around housing, climate and poverty below the paywall fold and in my podcast above.