NZ Crown budget 2012

Bill English is just a few short minutes away from dishing out some more of that austerity anti-awesomeness the Nats have been perfecting over the last four years.

The students (Twitter: #blockadethebudget) are protesting now in Auckland:

Will update as the Budget stats are released.

UPDATE 3:30PM: Who am I kidding? The wonks that were in the lock-up will be doing a better job of analysis than I could ever give. And don't click on that Budget stats link above - it's not working - and neither is the Treasury one (that I could find). Best just go to the Beehive site for all the press releases. And there's millions of them. Random one from Pita Sharples for instance:

Cadetships a focus for Māori Affairs:

The Government will fund 1,000 Māori cadetships over the next four years, Māori Affairs Minister Pita Sharples says.

“A total of $10 million allocated to the Māori cadetship programme over the next four years will enable 250 young Māori cadets a year to get paid jobs and training opportunities for at least six months,” Dr Sharples says.

“This means 250 people a year for four years will be on the road to success, through partnerships with private sector employers. This cadetship programme has a track record of exceeding targets in the past, and I am expecting great results from this investment in our young people.

“This decision also supports my vision for Te Puni Kokiri to focus on areas of critical importance to Māori communities – in this case jobs – through strategic influence and partnerships with other government agencies, industry, and local government,” Dr Sharples says.

The Minister has a great deal of confidence in TPK, but I'm still trying to figure out what their purpose is: holding hands? Endless, circuitous, redundant liaison functions? Are they the necessary machine that can bring things together and achieve outcomes that no other organisation can? or are they just pointless middlemen in a bureaucracy practising interference, control, dependency and the opposite of Tino Rangatiratanga and Mana Motuhake, ie. the opposite of autonomy and self-reliance? It looks to me like attempted Empire-building to make TPK "relevant" and have a high profile policy attached - but is this what they are good at?
So, $10m is divided into 250 cadets per year (although only 6 months stints?) That's $10k each - which is approximately what the dole would be for them so maybe it will be good value on these numbers.

From the Nat's summary page: Note the spiralling net government debt (bolded).

SUMMARY OF BUDGET ECONOMIC AND FISCAL FORECASTS

June Years	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
	Actual	Forecast	Forecast	Forecast	Forecast	Forecast
$ billion
Core Crown revenue	57.6	60.0	64.2	69.2	73.6	77.9
Core Crown expenses	70.5	69.6	73.7	72.9	74.9	77.3
Total Crown OBEGAL	-18.4	-8.4	-7.9	-2.0	0.2	2.1
Total Crown OBEGAL excl quake expense	-9.3	-7.1	-5.9	-1.7	0.4	2.2
Net core Crown debt	40.1	51.9	61.3	66.5	69.8	70.7
March Years	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
	Actual	Forecast	Forecast	Forecast	Forecast	Forecast
%
Real production GDP	1.2	1.6	2.6	3.4	3.1	2.9
Unemployment Rate (March quarter s.a.)	6.6	6.3	5.7	5.2	5.0	4.7
Current account balance (% of GDP)	-3.6	-4.2	-4.6	-5.9	-6.3	-6.7