'No lolly scramble': Finance Minister delivers pre-Budget speech | Stuff.co.nz

Finance Minister Nicola Willis says funding for almost every Government department will be frozen in this year's Budget.

The minister, speaking at a factory in Lower Hutt, is set to tell businesspeople that the Government is continuing its saving drive. She says this is not the right time for significant new spending.

With the global backdrop of wars and a tariff war, Willis says there are some areas where she's made an exception to the Budget freeze. Defence, health, education, law and order and a "small number" of "critical social investments" will receive extra funding, she says.

Her speech has two key goals: First, to make clear that the Government has not changed course from last year's Budget - which was focused on delivering a savings programme. Second, to offer reassurance that the Government is conscious of and responsive to global economic challenges.

"Let me be blunt: it’s not the easiest time to be putting together a Budget," Willis said, earlier in the speech, which is continuing now.

She says there will be "no lolly scramble" in Budget 2025. | Subscribe: https://bit.ly/2JPg8oB


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