Key Notes

I have just arrived back from visits to Samoa, Tonga, and Niue, where we built on the strong links New Zealand has with our Pacific neighbours.

At home, Ministers have continued to announce initiatives as part of this year’s Budget.

Budget 2014 is National’s sixth Budget.

It is a confident Budget for a confident country.

It’s a Budget that gets us back to surplus, manages a growing economy, and puts families at the heart of National’s programme.

So we have been busy delivering Budget 2014, and this year I wanted to give you a glimpse from behind the scenes on Budget Day.

Our economy is growing, wages are rising, and the economy has created 84,000 new jobs over the past year. Providing we stick with our successful programme, we can build on that progress over the next few years.

A growing economy provides opportunities for families and it pays for services New Zealanders rely on.

This is why in Budget 2014 we are providing free doctors’ visits and prescriptions for under 13s, boosting paid parental leave by four weeks, and increasing the parental tax credit by $70 per week.

Read more about Budget 2014 here.

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