Budget 2020 Information Release

The Treasury has released documents relating to Budget 2020 in response to, and in anticipation of, requests for Budget-related information from the public. The documents released here are among the most frequently requested under the Official Information Act.

See Budget 2020 for access to the core Budget documents such as the Budget Speech, Executive Summary and Fiscal Strategy Report. See also previous Budget information releases back to Budget 2005.

The first tranche of material proactively released on 26 June 2020 as part of the annual Budget information release relates to decisions funded through the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund (CRRF), which was established as part of Budget 2020. These decisions are referred to as the “CRRF Foundational Package” and have previously been published in the CRRF Summary of Initiatives. The release of this information has been prioritised and published early, in sync with the All-of-Government COVID-19 proactive release which can be found here:
https://uniteforrecovery.govt.nz/updates-and-resources/legislation-and-key-documents/proactive-release/

As in previous years, Cabinet decisions and key advice related to the Budget 2020 package will be released together. This second tranche is anticipated to be released in July

Information withheld from documents

Some information in this document has been withheld under one or more of the sections of the Official Information Act 1982.

Key to sections of the Official Information Act 1982 under which information has been withheld.

• [1] 6(a) – to avoid prejudice to the security or defence of New Zealand or the international relations of the government
• [2] 6(b)(i) – to avoid prejudice the entrusting of information to the Government of New Zealand on a basis of confidence by the Government of any other country or any agency of such a Government
• [4] 6(c) – to avoid prejudice to the maintenance of the law, including the prevention, investigation, and detection of offences, and the right to a fair trial
• [11] 6(e)(vi) – to prevent serious damage to the economy of New Zealand by disclosing prematurely decisions to change or continue government economic or financial policies relating to the entering into of overseas trade agreements
• [23] 9(2)(a) – to protect the privacy of natural persons, including deceased people
• [25] 9(2)(b)(ii) – to protect the commercial position of the person who supplied the information or who is the subject of the information
• [26] 9(2)(ba)(i) – to protect information which is subject to an obligation of confidence or which any person has been or could be compelled to provide under the authority of any enactment, where the making available of the information would be likely to prejudice the supply of similar information, or information from the same source, and it is in the public interest that such information should continue to be supplied
• [27] 9(2)(ba)(ii) – to protect information which is subject to an obligation of confidence or which any person has been or could be compelled to provide under the authority of any enactment, where the making available of the information would be likely otherwise to damage the public interest
• [29] 9(2)(d) – to avoid prejudice to the substantial economic interests of New Zealand
• [31] 9(2)(f)(ii) – to maintain the current constitutional conventions protecting collective and individual ministerial responsibility
• [33] 9(2)(f)(iv) – to maintain the current constitutional conventions protecting the confidentiality of advice tendered by ministers and officials
• [34] 9(2)(g)(i) – to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs through the free and frank expression of opinions
• [36] 9(2)(h) – to maintain legal professional privilege
• [37] 9(2)(i) – to enable the Crown to carry out commercial activities without disadvantage or prejudice
• [38] 9(2)(j) – to enable the Crown to negotiate without disadvantage or prejudice
• [39] 9(2)(k) – to prevent the disclosure of official information for improper gain or improper advantage
• [40] not in scope
• [41] 18(c)(i) – that the making available of the information requested would be contrary to the provisions of a
  specified enactment
• [42] 18(d) – information is already publicly available or will be publicly available soon.

Where information has been withheld, a numbered reference to the applicable section of the Official Information Act has been made, as listed above. For example, a [11] appearing where information has been withheld in a release document refers to section 6(e)(iv).

In preparing this Information Release, the Treasury has considered the public interest considerations in section 9(1) and section 18 of the Official Information Act.

Contacts for Enquiries