Top tweets about the 2015 Budget

This is some of the most interesting and insightful tweets about the 2015 New Zealand Budget. The most recent tweets are first. 

Felix Marwick ‏@felixmarwick 

one wonders what Ruth Richardson is thinking right now about the $25/wk increase to beneficiary families ....

Giovanni Tiso ‏@gtiso 

First increase above inflation of benefits since 1977. I get scepticism, but I'd like to hear why Labour didn't do it in 15 of those years.

Wira Gardiner @GardinerWira · 

Lift in benefit 1st time in 43 years clever and signalled dam buster raid into Labour territory! Size of lift $25 per week gob smacker!!

Ben Ross ‏@BenRoss_AKL 

so DPF and WO don't like the budget. means it must have been reasonable

Matthew Hooton ‏@MatthewHootonNZ 

Key message from @honbillenglish to beneficiaries: when your youngest child is 2yrs 3mths, get pregnant again and enjoy the higher benefits.

Liam Kernaghan ‏@liamkernaghan  

The funniest thing is seeing these clearly pre-written sound bites backfire spectacularly on the left this afternoon

George Darroch ‏@mrdarroch 

The seventh largest allocation in #budget2015 is for the armed forces.

Deborah M-T ‏@DeborahMTNZ 

Some good stuff in #budget2015 but small steps. An 8% incr in benefit rate doesn't recover the big cuts of 1991. Welcome relief 4 some tho.

Meg ‏@mfsloan 

Is National trying to occupy the entire political space? It's like giant elbows on a tiny restaurant table.

Josie Pagani ‏@josiepagani 

This isn’t a Labour-lite budget - it’s a National lite budget. Flying the economy on auto pilot is fundamentally not Labour!

Geoffrey Miller ‏@GeoffMillerNZ 

It's a weird world when National is increasing benefits and Labour advisers like @rsalmondare complaining about failure to make surplus

Matthew Hooton ‏@MatthewHootonNZ  I think @Budget2015 will be seen as the most historic since '86, because both ended an era & massively re-orientated the political spectrum.

Philip Nannestad ‏@philipsophy 

Hey righties disappointed at getting a 'tax & spend' budget from your own team. This is how it feels to be a leftie all the time #budget2015

Josie Pagani ‏@josiepagani 

Fat free CGT, decaff Kiwibuild, & cash 4 poorest doesn’t make u Labour-lite. Makes u cynical. Governing 4 the nxt election not the nxt gen

David Farrar ‏@dpfdpf 

If the Greens were really smart they'd claim the Budget as their own, and say it proves they can influence policy from opposition

Ben Guerin ‏@bjhguerin 

Andrew Little's budget speech is like your drunk relative having a rant after dinner

Rob Hosking ‏@robhosking 

John Key is sounding a lot like... Michael Cullen.

Election Satire ‏@SatireNZ 

Immigrants;10 bonus points if they visit Gisborne or Westport "before they rock up to their first @BarfootThompson auctions"

Geoffrey Miller ‏@GeoffMillerNZ 

Andrew Little's response to #budget2015 seems strangely out of sync with actual contents. So was Cunliffe's in 2014. #thinkingonyourfeet

Danyl Mclauchlan ‏@danylmc 

Funding welfare to poor families by cutting the Kiwisaver kickstart seems okay to me.

David Farrar ‏@dpfdpf 

This may be the worst opposition leader's budget speech in my memory. It's awful.

Joshua Hitchcock ‏@jcphitchcock 

Hard not to feel sorry for Andrew Little. He's got nothing to work with.

Frances Cook ‏@FrancesCook 

It's quite sad to be talking about #Budget2015 focusing on child poverty, when the man who made it a national talking point has been fired.

Nicola ‏@NikkyD77 

Thanks @helenkellyCTU this is a man's budget, raising a child and working is easy

Helen Kelly ‏@helenkellyCTU 

DPB was 76% avg wage in 1991 and now 53% #inequality

George Darroch ‏@mrdarroch 

Thanks to @NZNationalParty for increasing benefits to NZ's poorest by significantly more than @nzlabour ever did.

Election Satire ‏@SatireNZ 

#budget2015 Health boost; Funding for left leg amputations up $78m this year; Right legs $65m in 2019

David Tong ‏@Davidxvx 

Oh, look, someone just broke Kiwisaver.

Matthew Hooton ‏@MatthewHootonNZ 

Not even Norman Kirk and Wallace Rowling were as left wing as @johnkeypm and @honbillenglish.

Emma Jolliff ‏@emtvnews 

Extra $25 for beneficiaries to cost $125m per year. Exactly the same as KiwiSaver cut will save. Funny that. #budget2015

Election Satire ‏@SatireNZ 

#budget2015 Arts; Typo means R&D tax write-offs to apply also to R&B

Donna Mojab ‏@UnPressed 

This was a damage-control budget #budget2015

Bayden Harris ‏@BaydenHarris 

Budget is s*, just not as s* as it could be. No reason for celebration! #budget2015

Heather dPA ‏@HDPA 

Bet you never thought a National government would be the one to put the benefit up for the first time since 1972.

Barnaby Bennett ‏@mrbarnabyb  16m16 minutes ago

This budget reinforces my theory that this is really Bill English's government rather than the PMs.

Election Satire ‏@SatireNZ 

#budget2015 New upper harbour (Hokianga) crossing to be one lane only, however 'to be reviewed just prior to next Northland by-election"

Marianne Elliott ‏@zenpeacekeeper 

Inch by inch we can & will 'shift the centre' of the debate on child poverty in NZ. Only a mass movement of people can do that #endpovertynz

Geoffrey Miller ‏@GeoffMillerNZ 

The Mana Party budget #Budget2015

Michael Cropp ‏@M_Cropp 

Is the compassionate - conservative returning to NZ politics? #budget2015

Matthew Hooton ‏@MatthewHootonNZ 

Key message from @johnkeypm and @honbillenglish to any centre-right voter: VOTE ACT! VOTE ACT! VOTE ACT! @NZNationalParty @actparty

Marianne Elliott ‏@zenpeacekeeper 

At first glance, this Budget doesn't do nearly enough for kids in poverty. But your efforts helped make it impossible to do nothing.

Election Satire ‏@SatireNZ 

#budget2015 Single mothers must be available for part-time work "Say, as a list MP"

Joshua Hitchcock ‏@jcphitchcock 

Good budget: Large deficits gone, massive infrastructure improvements continue, more support for tamariki, core services maintained.

Election Satire ‏@SatireNZ 

#budget2015 English; Budgets are like ponytail pulling, "If you're not careful, you can really hack people off"

Ministry of Spin ‏@MinistryofSpin 

Departure and Arrival taxes return on the condition that NZ will host no more World Cups or #LOTR film premiers #Budget2015 #NZPol

Matthew Hooton ‏@MatthewHootonNZ 

Oh my f* god. A so-called @NZNationalParty govt has introduced a new border tax and raised benefits. #communismbystealth

Matthew Hooton ‏@MatthewHootonNZ 

If any left-wing poverty action group criticises this budget, they will prove they are just shills for @nzlabour

Matthew Hooton ‏@MatthewHootonNZ 

Is the NZ dollar falling?

Election Satire ‏@SatireNZ 

#budget2015 Regional development to be boosted, starting with 137 Coromandel oil drilling permits.

Matthew Hooton ‏@MatthewHootonNZ 

Forecast $176 million surplus for 15/16 not credible. Dairy price forecast is heroic. @NZNationalParty to deliver #decadeofdeficits.

Alex Coleman ‏@ShakingStick 

If this budget doesn't get ACT some waka jumpers and a 5% poll boost, nothing ever will.

Russell Brown ‏@publicaddress 

Introducing policies they campaigned against seems to be National's actual strategy.

Deborah Russell ‏@BeeFaerie 

Looks they they're pinching and scraping to get extra money any way they can. #desperate#facesaving #Budget2015

Election Satire ‏@SatireNZ 

#budget2015 English;2017 GDP should be 3.7% "provided we get at least four more earthquakes"

Deborah Russell ‏@BeeFaerie 

So it's $6 to leave, and $22 to get back in with the new Border Clearance Levy. Trying to give us a hint? #Budget2015

hamish mcneilly ‏@southernscoop 

TV3 the only one to deliver a surplus today #johncampbell #budget2015

Tamara #CampbellLive ‏@hcirePT 

Seeing that National has now gone Labour Lite, Labour's only solution is to move more to the Left.

Dovil ‏@Dovil 

Bill English promising a surplus next year and the possibility of tax cuts. I've used the words 'are you f* kidding me' a LOT today.

Deborah Russell ‏@BeeFaerie 

Kiwisaver kickstart is gone! That's a real shame for young people entering the workforce. #budget2015

Ben Ross ‏@BenRoss_AKL 

I see the Taxpayers Onion has released a spiteful presser Means Govt must being doing something right if that something is little

Election Satire ‏@SatireNZ 

English on housing; "We haven't had such a priority since we aimed to get out of deficit" #budget2015

Matt ‏@mfairh 

The Taxpayers Onion is calling it a "Labour-Green" budget. I wonder if that's a deliberate attempt to shift the Overton Window.

Danyl Mclauchlan ‏@danylmc 

Nats campaigned against family benefits in 2011. That's two Labour/Green policies adopted by them in less than a week #winning