Finance Minister Nicola Willis today has made it clear that austerity is on the horizon for health and other public services with little new money being made available in next month’s Budget.

In today’s pre-Budget speech the Finance Minister announced that the operating allowance, which funds new operating spending, will be halved to $1.3 billion.

"This is an irresponsible recipe for failure in health and public services which are already in desperate need of additional investment after reckless cuts and the failure to invest," said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association for Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.

"Budget 2025 should be about investing in the services New Zealanders need, particularly health with rising costs of care and an ageing population.

"But this government remains hell bent on its reckless ideological crusade to downsize our public health system regardless of the consequences.

"It made a clear choice in last year’s Budget to cut taxes and now the chickens are coming home to roost with the Government’s finances more constrained than they should be.

"Nicola Willis talks about ‘limited fiscal means’ forcing cuts to the operating allowance - well, she is the author of those, and it is a choice that she made.

"The PSA will strongly resist any further threats to the jobs of public service or health workers."

"This is a recipe for austerity which history tells us does not work, it just creates more misery, and New Zealanders will pay that price from this approach.

"Budget 2025 will be a sad indictment of the Government’s economic management."

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