{"id":4626,"date":"2023-05-18T16:19:12","date_gmt":"2023-05-18T04:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=4626"},"modified":"2023-05-18T16:19:24","modified_gmt":"2023-05-18T04:19:24","slug":"budget-2023-key-points-from-health-to-education-to-gaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=4626","title":{"rendered":"Budget 2023 key points: From health to education to gaming"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-Article-boldParagraph\">Budget 2023 has just been unveiled, with $4.8 billion of operating expenditure plus billions for big infrastructure initiatives.<\/p>\n<p>From the Government&#8217;s plan to expand the early childhood education scheme to two-year-olds, to getting rid of the $5 co-payment for prescriptions, to a tax rebate for the gaming industry.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>$1.2 billion over four years towards extending the 20 hours free ECE for Kiwi kids to those aged two. It&#8217;s currently for those aged three to five.<\/li>\n<li>$322 million to help lift the pay of ECE teachers to move towards parity with their kindergarten counterparts<\/li>\n<li>$323 million to continue free lunches in some schools<\/li>\n<li>$327 million for free public transport for kids under 13, and half-price fares for those under 25<\/li>\n<li>$619 million over four years to remove the $5 co-payment for prescription medicines<\/li>\n<li>$403 million to expand the Warmer Kiwi Homes programme, deliver 26,500 insulation and heating retrofits, deliver 7500 hot-water heat pumps, and deliver 5 million LED light bulbs<\/li>\n<li>$6 billion towards a National Resilience Plan to future-proof rail, road and local infrastructure<\/li>\n<li>$100 million over five years to a new infrastructure delivery agency, Rau Paenga<\/li>\n<li>$1 billion to increase health worker wages and staff numbers &#8211; including $63 million for progressing safe staffing and allowing for an additional 500 new nurses, $76 million for over four years to develop the health workforce, $118 million to reduce waiting lists<\/li>\n<li>$120 million over four years to expand the network of EV chargers to up to 23 hubs, each with 20 chargers<\/li>\n<li>$30 million over three years for a fund to provide grants for the purchase of low emission heavy vehicles<\/li>\n<li>$279 million state highway investment package for slope stabilisation, culverts, rockfall protection and other measures to make the main roads more resilient<\/li>\n<li>$825 million Maori Budget package, for housing, cyclone recovery efforts, Whanau Ora, Maori education, and Maori tourism<\/li>\n<li>$77 million extension to the Apprenticeship Boost scheme to the end of 2024<\/li>\n<li>Hiking the trustee tax rate from 33 percent to 39 percent to align it with the top personal rate to stop some taxpayers from circumventing the system<\/li>\n<li>Expanding a &#8216;circuit breaker&#8217; programme targeting repeat child offenders to Hamilton, Christchurch and Auckland City<\/li>\n<li>A 20 percent tax rebate for game development studios to retain talent in the quickly growing industry<\/li>\n<li>Three new multi-institution research hubs, focused on climate change and disaster resilience, health and pandemic readiness, and technology and innovation<\/li>\n<li>$55.2 million for research fellowships and to train more PhD studentsSOURCE RNZ<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Budget 2023 has just been unveiled, with $4.8 billion of operating expenditure plus billions for big infrastructure initiatives. From the Government&#8217;s plan to expand the early childhood education scheme to two-year-olds, to getting rid of the $5 co-payment for prescriptions, to a tax rebate for the gaming industry. $1.2 billion over four years towards extending [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[222,174],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4626","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-latest-news","category-nz-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4626","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4626"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4628,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4626\/revisions\/4628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}