The Budget 2008. The numbers are in and now, what do you think?

A Budget that has something for everyone - that's the consensus on this years Budget, though there still remains much to be delivered and quite a bit to be seen in the detail. I've been talking to whanau up and down the country and the opinion seems mixed. This issue, we're going to take a brief look at this years Budget allocations and korero about that smallest of words which has the largest of concern - no, not death - tax. We all pay them in one form or another. There's a tax on your pay, a tax on your benefit, a tax on petrol, a tax on food, a tax for retirement (no matter how the present Government says Kiwi Saver is an investment, it still feels like a tax), the cow patero tax only just got denied and there's even a tax you have to pay when flying out of the country.

If there's one thing our country does well, it's taxes.

And as we're witnessing this week, if there's going to be one issue that dominates the election and media coverage, it will be tax.

I recall the pride and horror when reading my first payslip, pride at the fact that I had earned a few dollars to buy comics; absolute horror when learned that I had to pay a lot of my hard-earned money to someone called PAYE. I showed my mum as I thought this person shouldn't be getting a cut - she replied " …oh, that's just your tax".

After sitting and talking to my parents, it became clear that everyone, and near everything, was taxable, and after some convincing, agreed that it was one of the few ways all people could contribute to paying for the many services required in any society. I walked out, smiling to myself, knowing that I had helped pay for the roads, the footpaths, the park we all loved and the many people working in the public sector.

Today, it again shocks me to see how much tax is being taken in; a forecast figure of $56,639 million in the 2007/08 year is declared by Treasury on its website. Today, Finance Minister Dr Michael Cullen will show us his Budget for 2008, in the hope of continuing in-country market stabilisation and as an aside, to whet voter appetite during this year's upcoming election. Last year, his effort was mocked and called the 'Bubble Gum Budget', as the amount returned to the people as tax cuts would only amount to less than a dollar.

And now, the numbers are in. This year, the Government has committed us to:

• $750 million in new health spending (includes first year of $160 million announced over weekend for elective services)
• $700 million for Fast Forward Fund investing in food and pastoral sector research
• $665 million to buy the national rail operations
• $621 million in total over five years to boost Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
• $446 million over four years to boost funding for community organisations
• $251.9 million in total over four years on revamp of Mt Eden Prison
• $171.6 million increase for operational support in schools, with $65.3 million for ICT help
• $164.2 million over five years for a cervical cancer immunisation programme
• $150 million a year on educational changes to keep young people in school or training until they are 18
• $72.1 million over 10 years to clean up Rotorua lakes
• $46.5 million over four years to providers of home-based support for injured people
• $35 million for a shared-equity pilot scheme for homebuyers
• $33.5 million over four years for Canterbury transport
• $22.4 million over four years for state house insulation
• $13 million to upgrade flood protection in Milford Sound
• $9 million over three years to lift horse-racing prizemoney purses
• $8.8 million over four years to develop and maintain an electronic medicines reference book
• $8.4 million over two years for Search and Rescue
• $7 million pledged to restore the Mataatua Whare
• $1 million to the newly established Rutherford Foundation
• $840,000 to help tourism businesses improve environmental sustainability
• $600,000 over four years to fund a new European Union/New Zealand exchange programme
  (props to Paula Oliver and the NZ Herald for these figures)

With a total running total of $3.999 billion, that's all tax being spent and yes, that's our money too. It also buys a whole lot of bubble gum this time around. Now, here's a question – if you had $100 million to allocate, where would you put it and why?

Ok, besides what is already listed, what was in it for Maori? Well, first off, there's $12 million over the next four years being dedicated to Maori health and disability workforce; if you're a film-maker, there's a new $27 million fund, so get scripting, prepare your story boards and you may get your story beamed on our screens; a new $324 million braodband fund has been established but we're unsure at this stage if Rangikainga will receive anything (:P); middle-income earners (around $45,000pa) will receive an extra $16 per week as a part of a larger $10.6 billion tax cut package but this figure includes Working for Families indexation (??), KiwiBank incentives, research funding and a 3% cut in the company tax rate (from 33% to 30%). There's $9 million being spent to implement new laws to improve supervision of financial advisers and institutions; the student loan living cost component increases $5 to $155 a week, an increase in the parental income threshold 10 per cent from next year and lowering the age limit for those students one year to 24; there's also $15 million to support recruitment and retention initiatives intended to increase the international competitiveness of New Zealand universities. So whanau ma, there is a lot of money, but yes, very little specific to Maori save the additional funds to our Maori health and disability workforce - awesome news to all Maori health professional associations, Maori health providers and Maori health workers.

The Maori Party say that tax cuts barely relieve the huge pressures on many families, and does little to eliminate poverty; they have called for food to be exempt from GST, and for people on incomes of less than $25,000 not to pay income tax, which has huge agreement amongst whanau I know. The Green Party have said this Budget shows little regard to the environment, while tertiary student leaders have denouned the Budget for failing to remedy the rapidly increasing $10 billion Student Debt Bill. Last election, the votes of friends went to the highest bidder, which was Labour with its pledge of interest free Student Loans. That clearly did not happen this year.

So now the media think they're clever by calling this the Block of Cheese Budget, saying that the $16 given back to some taxpayers equates to a single family block of cheese. They laugh and hope the label sticks - I'm personally insulted, knowing how that amount is small to many but huge to a great many more people. I'm also shocked to hear that cheese is now almost $20 a block, shocked to see petrol hit the $2 per litre mark and absolutely shocked that Maori are still not important enough to warrant direct financial support. But that's to be expected, as we do head toward an election and all things Maori remain a open invitation for political ridicule and negative-targeting.

Either way, the release of Budget 2008 will be extremely important as we see what tax money will be withdrawn from our bank accounts every week, as we spot trends for the rising food and commodity prices almost daily and continue to support our extraordinary Maori organisations who provide top-quality services on little more than the smell of an oily rag and a whole lot of commitment to our people. Mauri ora ki a koutou katoa.

All comments about tax and this year's Budget are greatly welcome.

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Google Maori is (almost) ready for launch! - Google Maori is now fully translated!!  Whanau ma, this great news came to us this week and now we're heading toward the launch of this exciting new tool that will encourage greater Maori participation and representation online and that continues to place te reo Maori at the forefront of indigenous language revitalisation. Google Maori will be a great tool for Kura Kaupapa, Kohanga Reo and Whare Wananga and for all wanting that first Google page to all ki te reo Rangatira.

We now have only two points to cover - final group verification of what has been translated thus far and to prepare for the LAUNCH OF GOOGLE MAORI in time for MATARIKI 08.  So, if you are a member of our Google Maori group, please take a look at your email or log in and check what has been done to date.  We need your feedback, comments by no later than 12pm Friday 30th May. 

From here, we will prepare the launch of Google Maori in early July.  The time, date and location will be confirmed next week but we are now asking where would you like to go?  We have had two suggestions - the first is to Wellington (as this is a significant national and international event, it's possible to gain help from various Government agencies and businesses to help support our launch) or Rotorua (as we live in Rotorua, it has been suggested to keep costs down, we all meet here and launch).  It does depend on what funding we can access, so if you are able to help, please call us immediately (Nikolasa 021 179 9091).

So whanau, we're nearly there.  Please help with the verification feedback - if the word or phrase is good, move on until we've completed the list.  Once we're done, it's a steady movement toward the launch.  All help will be greatly appreciated and we have now officially started counting down to lift-off.  Google Maori... coming really really soon!!!