NZ Budget 2025: anything less than a 5% increase in health funding amounts to merely standing still
- Written by Tim Tenbensel, Professor of Health Policy, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau

Minister of Health Simeon Brown claimed earlier this year that health funding in New Zealand has never been higher and that suggestions of underfunding are “fake news”.
On the bare statistics, Brown isn’t wrong. The allocation to Vote Health has indeed increased from NZ$18.2...