This presentation was made by Struan Little, New-Zealand, at the 40th Annual Meeting of OECD Senior Budget Officials (SBO) held in Tallinn, Estonia, on 5-6 June 2019

1. New Zealand Budget 2019:
The Wellbeing Budget
Presentation to OECD Senior Budget Officials
Struan Little, Deputy Secretary, Budget and Public Services
5 June 2019

2. Changes to:
1. Strategy
2. Decision-making
3. Communication
How is the Wellbeing Budget different?
2

3. 1) Strategy: Living Standards Framework
3

4. Example from the LSF Dashboard: Educational attainment, 2017
Source: Treasury analysis of the Household Labour Force Survey, StatsNZ
1) Strategy: LSF Dashboard
4

5. 1) Strategy: Budget 2019 priorities
1. Taking Mental Health Seriously – Supporting mental wellbeing for
all New Zealanders, with a special focus on under 24-year-olds
2. Improving Child Wellbeing – Reducing child poverty and
improving child wellbeing, including addressing family violence
3. Supporting Māori and Pasifika Aspirations – Lifting Māori and
Pacific incomes, skills and opportunities
4. Building a Productive Nation – Supporting a thriving nation in the
digital age through innovation, social and economic opportunities
5. Transforming the Economy – Creating opportunities for
productive businesses, regions, iwi and others to transition to a
sustainable and low-emissions economy
5

6. • Wellbeing analysis – updated tools
• Cross-agency collaboration
• Senior officials groups
• Cabinet Committee involvement in package
development
2) Decision-making: process
6

7. 2) Decision-making: outcomes
7

8. 2) Decision-making: outcomes
8
Highlights of
new initiatives
in the five
Budget
priorities:

9. 3) Communications
9
• New look and feel
• New “annual report-style”
document
• Only eight press releases

10. Maintaining surpluses
10
-25
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 2023
Year ending 30 June
Core Crown Crown entities SOEs OBEGAL (after inter-segment eliminations)
Forecast
$billions

11. Meeting Budget responsibility rules
11
0
4
8
12
16
20
24
28
32
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
2009 2011 2013 2015 2017 2019 2021 2023
$billions
Year ending 30 June
Net core Crown debt % of nominal GDP (RHS)
Forecast
% of GDP

12. • Amending the Public
Finance Act
• Child poverty reporting
requirements
• State Sector Act reform
• Changes to agencies’
planning and reporting
Beyond the Budget
12

13. Children in households below the fixed-line After Housing Costs (AHC) poverty threshold
Source:
Child Poverty Report
13

14. • Earlier political
commitments
• Addressing cost pressures
• Emerging priorities
Wellbeing Budget challenges
14

15. Looking ahead
• Considering changes to Budget process, multi-year
funding, further use of baseline reviews
• Changes to strategic planning/reporting for agencies
• Building wellbeing and reporting capability across the
public sector