新西兰英语 28 The Budget

　　Today, the Minister of Finance¹, Dr Michael Cullen, announced his budget. Every year, at about the same time of year, the Minister of Finance announces a budget which tells us how the Government plans to spend our tax money in the next year and in the future.
The first thing that interests most people is tax cuts. Are we going to pay less tax in the future? We knew before the budget that the tax cuts would be small so it was not a surprise to learn that people earning an average wage will have only another $16 a week in their pockets. This will not happen until October 1st. The plan is for these tax cuts to increase over the next 3 years from $16 a week to $32. But remember that there is an election² in November and if National wins the election, the Labour Government’s budget plans will not happen.
The tax rate for those earning up to $14,000 a year will reduce to 12.5%. For those earning $14,001 to $40,000, the rate will be 21%. The top tax rate of 39% will be for those earning over $70,000.
The Government is putting more money into their Working for Families scheme. This gives money to low income families. Single parents will get more money and so will elderly people on New Zealand Superannuation.
There is extra money in the budget to reduce Year One class sizes in primary schools, and to help reduce the cost of pre-school education for parents.
Extra money for Health was announced a few days ago. The Government is putting an extra $750 million a year into Health to reduce waiting lists.
Another important area is improving broadband internet, not just for businesses but also for households. The Government is planning to spend half a million dollars to put fibre optic cables³ underground to give fast internet to houses and is also planning to improve rural⁴ internet. They expect private business to spend the same amount of money on this.
In the next few days, the Opposition⁵ in Parliament⁶ will give their ideas about the budget. Already John Key, the Leader of the National Party, has called it the “block of cheese” budget because the extra money will just be enough to buy a big block of cheese. He has promised that if National win the election, they will give New Zealanders bigger tax cuts. The Labour Government says that this would mean cuts in government spending on things like Education and Health, or more borrowing from overseas.

1 finance   

n.财务管理，财政，金融，财源，资金

参考例句：

• She is an expert in finance.她是一名财政专家。
• A finance house made a bid to buy up the entire company.一家信贷公司出价买下了整个公司。

2 election   

n.选举，选择权；当选

参考例句：

• There is no doubt but that he will win the election.毫无疑问，他将在竞选中获胜。
• The government will probably fall at the coming election.在即将到来的大选中，该政府很可能要垮台。

3 cables   

n.电报( cable的名词复数 )；电缆；（系船用的）缆绳；（船只、桥梁等上的）巨缆

参考例句：

• Use the crocodile clips to attach the cables to the battery. 用鳄鱼嘴夹把电缆接到蓄电池上。
• Please don't touch these metal cables inside a plastic sleeve. 请不要碰那些套着塑料管的金属电缆。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 rural   

adj.乡下的，田园的，乡村风味的

参考例句：

• He lived a rural life.他过着田园生活。
• We left the city for a rural home.我们离开城市，去农村安家。

5 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

6 Parliament   

n.议会，国会

参考例句：

• She won a seat in Parliament at the election.她在选举中赢得了议会中的席位。
• The drug was banned by an act of parliament.议会的法案明令禁止该药品。