Submission on the Budget Policy Statement 2022

28 January 2022

The annual Budget Policy Statement outlines the priority areas for the Government’s Budget Policy.

• We support inclusion of te Ao Māori perspectives with the Living Standards Framework as applicable to the wellbeing of all New Zealanders, and which also supports a long-term intergenerational approach to wellbeing.

• We support directing proceeds from the Emissions Trading Scheme to the new Climate Emergency Response Fund (CERF), and look forward to seeing clear directives, funding criteria for projects and evaluation of impact towards New Zealand’s climate response.

• On health and COVID-related funding, the government needs to prioritise appropriate funding and relevant data for Māori, Pasifika, the elderly, people with disabilities and those with underlying health conditions. The overhaul of the health system needs to take sufficient account of subsidiarity – that decisions be made at the most appropriate level, to ensure responsiveness and accountability to local communities.

• We welcome new technologies and greater digital connectivity to provide jobs and more sustainable ways of working. But technology and the economy must serve the common good of humanity. Nothing can replace face to face encounters and the need for genuine human connection and interaction. An integrated approach to providing services is required to allow full participation in ways appropriate to different people.

• Access to safe, affordable and healthy homes remains one of our most pressing social issues across the country. We need a wider range of housing options. We welcome the inclusion of housing in two of the five key wellbeing objectives, but propose it be included also in the objectives relating to physical and mental wellbeing, and the just transition.