In 2025, New Zealand’s Budget was nicknamed the ‘No BS Budget.’ The 2026 'Responsible Budget' a moniker mentioned 71 times in Kiwi media one day after its release, reflected a 13% year-on-year rise in positive sentiment.
Minister of Finance Nicola Willis’ third Budget earned more quantity and quality of media coverage compared to the year prior. To understand why, our in-house team of media researchers and analysts have pieced together trends from 2942 media items from all NZ Magazine, Online, Podcast, Print, Radio & TV media.
Table Of Contents
- The 'No BS Budget' of 2025
- Comparing Budget Coverage Volume Year-on-Year
- The Key Announcements That Mattered
- What Led Kiwi Media's Positive Reception of the 2026 Budget?
- Explaining Negative Sentiment on Social Media
- About Media Analysis at Streem
The 'No BS Budget' of 2025
In 2025, Christopher Luxon’s Government presented a Budget with the smallest operating allowance in a decade, coming in at $1.3 billion per annum. Although New Zealand media had their own nicknames, it was deemed “The Growth Budget” in official documentation with major efforts geared towards reducing government debt and getting the books back in order.
The six deliverables highlighted most were as follows:
| 1 | A new tax incentive called Investment Boost, meant to encourage business investment and grow the economy |
| 2 | Investment in health, education, law and order, and other frontline public services |
| 3 | KiwiSaver changes to support Kiwis saving for homes and retirement |
| 4 | Funding to boost Defence Force capability |
| 5 | Major infrastructure capital investment into hospitals and schools |
| 6 | Targeted cost-of-living support for low-to-middle income families and other groups |
As always, the ‘winners and losers’ of this Budget were debated on by media outlets. Stuff reported that businesses, KiwiSaver accounts, learning support educators, private schools, defence, and the Nelson and Wellington hospitals had won, whereas low-paid women, parents of unemployed teenagers, RNZ, people with student loans, and families receiving the first year of the Best Start tax credit were their losers. RNZ also reported that businesses were the stand-out winners due to tax breaks.
To understand how the New Zealand media received these announcements, our team compiled a media analysis report in 2025 that examined coverage volume, key spokespeople and sources, and sentiment across traditional and social media.
At Streem, Net Sentiment Score (NSS) is a human-curated measure used to ascertain the overall sentiment of a topic that is calculated by subtracting the total percentage of positive media mentions from negative mentions.
Last year, our in-house analysis of the New Zealand media’s coverage of the Budget before, during, and after its release revealed that the Net Sentiment Score (NSS) was +13%. This was a moderately positive result.
Comparing Budget Coverage Volume Year-on-Year
The 2026 New Zealand Budget generated 2,942 media items between the 23rd and 31st of May, a 34% increase on the volume of the 2025 Budget, which earned 2,197 items.
Media coverage was led by increased investment in infrastructure and health, including the expanded bowel cancer screening programme, along with a projected return to surplus in 2028/29, one year earlier than expected.
From May 23rd to 27th, the topics that led the pre-Budget conversation included early announcements from the Government on funding for ambulance hubs, training and welfare checks for medical staff, border security, the National Wilding Conifer Control Programme, and the Gas Transition Loan Guarantee Scheme.
The day before the Budget was released, coverage also spiked due to press from Labour leader Chris Hipkins and Union leaders. Hipkins was quoted as saying that the Budget was the Government’s “last chance” to convince voters that it understands their needs, while Union representatives asked the Government to put workers at the centre of the Budget to help them during the cost-of-living crisis.
Chart made with Flourish
By noon on May 28th at 2:00 pm, the Budget papers had been publicly released and content produced during the morning’s restricted briefing for journalists and analysts was published online. Media reports focused on the Government’s projected surplus for 2028/29, one year earlier than originally forecast, along with key investments in health and infrastructure.
High volumes of snapshot reporting and soundbites from Government and Opposition MPs Budget debate speeches in Parliament gained ground quickly, with Labour suggesting that the Budget did not offer enough support to working Kiwis and their families and the Green Party criticising the Government for making ordinary Kiwis pay for the cost of living crisis.
Post-Budget, from the 29th to 31st of May, New Zealand media brought new perspectives into the conversation. Bowel Cancer NZ praised the $45.6m funding for the expansion of bowel cancer screening, particularly in MediaWorks Radio bulletins. BusinessNZ welcomed the $1bn investment in rail networks, and RNZ covered Dame Lynda Topp’s criticism of arts investment versus defence spending, as well as US Secretary for Defence Pete Hegseth's criticisms of NZ’s defence spending despite an uplift of $1.58bn allocated in the Budget.
The Key Announcements That Mattered
To understand what drove the disparity in media coverage between New Zealand’s 2025 and 2026 Budgets, our team analysed the number of Total Media Items produced for leading announcements.
One of the key insights found through this process was the significance of infrastructure coverage, which increased more than fivefold between 2025 and 2026. RNZ and Waikato Times in particular produced a substantial amount of coverage on investment in public infrastructure, including roads, hospitals and schools.
Coverage of Defence and Foreign Affairs also rose by 525 items year-on-year through increased spending on military bases, border security, maritime defensive capability and personnel training, while doubts about Treasury forecasts boosted mentions of the Projected Surplus. Revenue and Public Service Transformation were also two new categories of coverage in 2026, while Cost of Living departed from the ranking.
What Led Kiwi Media's Positive Reception of the 2026 Budget?
Before its release, the Net Sentiment Score (NSS) of the 2026 Budget sat at a positive +31%. Post-Budget, that rating fell 14 points to +17%.
However, the overall NSS for the 2026 Budget between the 23rd and 31st May was +22%, a 13% improvement on the NSS of Budget 2025. Broken down, coverage was 43% positive and 21% negative.
In a wider ANZ context, the 2026 Australian Federal Budget earned an overall NSS of -10%, driven down by criticism of significant tax reforms. Comparatively, New Zealand’s Budget was received more positively by local media.
| Sentiment | Key Coverage |
|
Positive |
Led by the headline Budget announcement of a forecast return to surplus by 2028/29, along with boosts to health and infrastructure spending. Further positive coverage was driven by a $45m investment in bowel cancer screening, which was welcomed by Bowel Cancer NZ’s Peter Huskinson. |
| Trending Positive |
Trending positive items focused on the projected surplus, although some commentators expressed doubts about the optimistic nature of the Government's forecasts. Spending on hospital and school upgrades and a new bank levy were also trending positive. |
| Neutral |
Comments about the increasing costs of superannuation, made by Finance Minister Nicola Willis during the Budget Lockup were neutral. Discussion about the potential impact of the new bank levy on consumers was also neutral, alongside Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s rebuttal of criticism about defence spending from Dame Lynda Topp, and a photo opportunity on the Budget printing day with Willis and the Associate Finance Ministers. |
| Trending Negative |
Included concerns about the assumptions the Budget relied on to produce forecasts of a return to surplus, with ANZ Chief Economist Sharon Zollner and commentator Duncan Garner among those expressing doubt that the surplus could be achieved. |
| Negative |
The Opposition's response to the Budget drove negative items, with a focus on public sector job losses, the impact of housing support changes on Pasifika communities, and the removal of the tertiary fees-free programme. Criticism of defence spending from Dame Lynda Topp was also negative. |
Explaining Negative Sentiment on Social Media
Compared to traditional media’s positive reception of the 2026 Budget, social media communities were notably more critical. Across 657 written-form social media posts, the Automated Social Media Sentiment rating registered at -17%.
Most content was rated neutral (67%), with 25% combined trending negative and negative coverage and just 8% trending positive coverage.
Using Streem's social media monitoring, our team identified that commenters commonly criticised defence spending, job cuts, and the lack of cost-of-living support. As seen in the chart below, the Government’s response to the fuel crisis was the fifth most-discussed topic on social media. Traditional media did not cover this focus area to the same extent.
About Media Analysis at Streem
This analysis was brought to you by our Bespoke Media Analysis reporting service.
Bespoke Media Analysis reports are entirely human-curated, providing an in-depth analysis of media coverage towards any given brand, topic, or conversation in the media. Streem’s bespoke analysis service allows the flexibility and nuance that automated analysis cannot, including human-rated sentiment analysis to assess media reputation, commentary alongside findings, trend analysis over time and key insights throughout to allow a comprehensive understanding of media coverage and further inform media strategy.
Get in touch with the team today to find out how in-depth analysis reporting can further inform media strategy and assist in data-driven decisions, at insights@streem.co.nz.
