T.I.I.N.A. - The Indigenous Innovation Network Agency

Yesterday Nicola Willis stood up in Parliament and delivered a budget designed to do two things: build things, and win an election. Those are not the same objective, and the tension between them runs through the entire document. The headline numbers sound impressive. $7 billion in infrastructure investment. $5.7 billion in new capital spending. Hospitals, schools, roads, rail, courthouses, police stations. These are real projects that will employ real people. If you run a construction company, an engineering firm, or a logistics business, this budget is good news. But headlines are not policy. And the detail tells a different story for different people. What the budget gets right The $50 per week increase to the in work tax credit will make a tangible difference for lower and middle income working families. This is not a token gesture. It puts money directly into household budgets where it is needed most. The infrastructure investment is genuine and overdue. New Zealand has underinvested in physical infrastructure for decades. Hospitals are overcrowded, schools are deteriorating, and transport networks are under strain. Putting capital into these areas creates both immediate employment and long term public benefit. Health receives meaningful frontline funding, including ambulance services, mileage rates for care workers, and digital health systems. Education gains operating funding, trades training places, and literacy support. These are areas where investment has been needed and where the returns, in workforce capability and public health outcomes, are well established. What the budget gets wrong The operating allowance, the money that funds the people who actually run public services, is $2.1 billion. That is tight. It means the Government is building hospitals but constraining the workforce that will staff them. It is investing in schools but limiting the operational budgets that keep them functioning. You cannot pour concrete with one hand and cut the workforce with the other and expect better outcomes. Approximately 8,700 public sector roles are being cut over three years. That is not trimming fat. That is reducing the capacity of the state to deliver the very services this budget claims to prioritise. Fees Free for final year university students is gone. The argument is fiscal discipline. The reality is that students from lower income backgrounds, disproportionately Māori and Pacific, are the ones who will feel this. It is a saving that falls unevenly, and the Government knows it. The Māori question Here is where the budget requires honest examination. There is $48 million over four years for Māori broadcasting. There is support for kaupapa Māori education. These are welcome. But they exist alongside the cutting of 38 roles at Te Puni Kōkiri, the one ministry specifically tasked with advising the Government on Māori wellbeing. Think about what that means. The Government says it is committed to improving outcomes for Māori. At the same time, it is reducing the capacity of the organisation responsible for holding it accountable to that commitment. You cannot have it both ways. Whānau Ora sits at $179 million. That is 0.2% of total social services spending. The model works. The evidence is there. Multiple evaluations have shown that whānau centred, Māori led service delivery produces better outcomes than mainstream alternatives. Yet the funding remains at a fraction of what was originally intended, and the bureaucratic barriers to growing it, particularly the demand to prove direct causation through narrow data frameworks, remain firmly in place. The uncomfortable truth is that this budget invests in things Māori communities need (hospitals, schools, housing) but underinvests in the Māori led systems that ensure those communities can actually access and benefit from that investment. Infrastructure without governance capability, without adequately resourced iwi partnerships, without community led service delivery at scale, is infrastructure that serves postcodes, not people. What it means if you run a small or medium business For SMEs, the signals are mixed. The capital expenditure pipeline creates opportunity, particularly for firms in construction, engineering, health services, training, and supply chain. If you can position your business to deliver into that pipeline, the next two years look positive. The risk sits on the operational side. Government restraint on day to day spending means fewer contracts for advisory, consulting, and professional services firms that depend on public sector work. Diversification is not optional. Businesses that operate across multiple sectors, including iwi governance, private sector consulting, and infrastructure delivery, are better positioned than those reliant on a single client or revenue stream. For Indigenous led businesses specifically, the message is clear: the Government is not going to build the pathway for you. It is building roads and hospitals. Whether Māori businesses and communities are positioned to benefit from that investment depends entirely on the strength of our own governance, strategy, and networks. Where T.I.I.N.A. sits in this We work at the intersection that this budget exposes. The space between capital investment and community benefit. Between infrastructure spending and governance capability. Between what gets built and who it actually serves. The marae is not in this budget. The boardroom is. T.I.I.N.A. operates in both, because that is where the real work happens: making sure that when billions are spent, Indigenous communities are not spectators but participants, leaders, and beneficiaries.

Budget 2026: Who Benefits, Who Pays, and Where Māori Fit in a Budget Built for an Election

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