OVERVIEW AND ANALYSIS
Jenna Lynch (Stuff): No lolly scramble: Why National’s election budget is banking on a fragile surplus
Luke Malpass (Post): A modest Budget for straitened times (paywalled)
Anneke Smith and Henry Cooke (Post): Coalition serves meat and two veg, but an early surplus for dessert (paywalled)
Audrey Young (Herald): Willis’ key message - the books are back under control (paywalled)
Corin Dann (RNZ): Nicola Willis banks on Kiwis buying into her Budget fix-up
Lyric Waiwiri-Smith (Spinoff): What’s in ‘tough love’ Budget 2026 - and what’s missing
Joel MacManus (Spinoff): Nicola Willis shuffles the deck chairs on a drifting Interislander ferry
Vernon Small (Post): Jam tomorrow? Why Nicola Willis’ ‘sensible’ Budget could sour the public mood (paywalled)
Henry Cooke (Post): The Budget in eight charts (paywalled)
Brent Edwards (NBR): Willis warns against reckless spending as she delivers Budget ‘26 (paywalled)
Spinoff: The great Spinoff hot-take roundtable
Pattrick Smellie (BusinessDesk): A fiscally prudent, politically neutral Budget (paywalled)
Sam Sachdeva (Newsroom): No ‘sugar hits’, but jam tomorrow in Willis’ pre-election Budget
Alice Peacock (Newsroom): Willis opts for hammer over carrot with building-heavy Budget
Thomas Coughlan (Herald): Schools and hospitals win, banks get surprise tax, Nicola Willis gets to surplus, and launches super-sized attack on NZ First and Labour for ‘robbing’ Kiwis under 50
Jamie Ensor (Herald): 10 things you need to know, from bank levy to sneaky surplus
Gyles Beckford (RNZ): ‘New Zealand digging its way out of the post-Covid hole’, Finance Minister says
Glenn McConnell (Stuff): Budget 2026 winners and losers: Winston comes out on top, banks lose
Craig McCulloch (RNZ): No ‘sugar hits’ for voters as Nicola Willis battles to balance the books
Boris Jancic (RNZ): Budget 2026 at a glance: The big changes, winners and losers - what you need to know
1News: Analysis: Nicola Willis’ Budget 2026 ‘keeping the lights on’
Emma Ricketts (1News): Budget 2026 at a glance: Where the Government is spending big
ECONOMY, FISCAL STRATEGY AND SURPLUS
Tom Pullar-Strecker (Post): Treasury sees surplus in 2029, a year earlier than expected, but warns of ‘general uncertainty’ (paywalled)
Jenée Tibshraeny (Herald): New taxes, spending cuts, and positive forecasts see earlier than expected return to surplus (paywalled)
Rebecca Howard (BusinessDesk): Government books back in the black by June 2029 even in downside scenario (paywalled)
Jonathan Mitchell (NBR): New Zealand economic recovery delayed, not derailed (paywalled)
Marc Daalder (Newsroom): Govt on track for 2029 surplus in surprise forecast reversal
Anna Whyte (Interest): Snips, tweaks and an optimistic outlook from Treasury
Brent Edwards (NBR): Government spending as percentage of GDP expected to fall (paywalled)
Jonathan Mitchell (NBR): Government’s books are forecast to be back in surplus in 2028 (paywalled)
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