The who’s who of Budget 2026: The key decision makers behind the big day
Monday, 18 May 2026
As the political world holds its breath for the Budget, the people who actually build it are starting to catch theirs.
The spotlight will be on Finance Minister Nicola Willis next week but the Budget process runs year-round and takes the efforts of a legion of forecasters, advisers and even a security guard.
Ahead of the big day, The Post has taken a look at the key players behind the Budget’s four phases - strategy, budget proposals, package development and production.
Read more:
Budget 2026: Nicola Willis says ‘job-rich’ projects will feature in $2.2b boost to capital allowance
PM Christopher Luxon says he will pick ‘social stability’ over high migration
Nicola Willis says NZ First had to be convinced to scrap fees-free
The finance minister’s show
Budget 2026 is ultimately the handiwork of Nicola Willis and the decisions she thinks are prudent ‒ both politically and fiscally.
Budgets are all about trade-offs. Once funding for the basics ‒ things like health and education ‒ is allocated, where does the extra money go, if there is any?
These are questions Willis will have been asking herself since before she presented her last Budget. She has a whole team of staff in her Beehive office ‒ from half a dozen Treasury officials to Parliamentary advisers and press secretaries ‒ but for the big Budget decisions she most relies on her key economic advisor, Grant Johnston.
Johnston doesn’t have a public profile but has worked for National in the Beehive for years. He was instrumental in shaping Budgets under Sir John Key’s government and was so well respected he earned a shout out in Key’s valedictory speech. Johnston returned to Parliament this term to work for Willis.
With a proven reputation as a capable and unflappable operator, Johnston will have had an eye over every element of Budget 2026. He will be in regular talks with Willis ‒ becoming more frequent as decision deadlines loom ‒ about what trade-offs should be made.
Senior private secretary Ben Gaukrodger heads up Treasury’s team in the Minister’s office. His role isn’t Budget-specific but during Budget season he plays a key co-ordinating role and acts as a central point of contact when Willis is seeking Treasury advice.
In Willis’ office you’ll also find senior press secretary Nick Venter, a political journalist who went on to be a press secretary for former Finance Minister Bill English. He hits ‘send’ on the email to journalists with all of the Budget documents and handles media requests for interviews.
Treasury’s trove of Budget staffers
Treasury ‒ the Government’s financial advisor ‒ has a core Budget team of about 20 people that provide advice, management and co-ordination for the Budget process. It’s led by Stephen Bond, who’s worked on Budgets in the UK, and steers the ship through New Zealand’s year-long Budget process.
There are half a dozen ‘vote teams’ ‒ groups of subject experts ‒ responsible for liaising with government departments about their individual bids and details. (“Votes” are the tranches of funding each department gets ‒ so “Vote Health” covers all of Health NZ’s spending.)
Deputy Secretary System and Sector Performance Mark Sowden (former chief executive of Stats NZ) and Assistant Secretary Public Sector Performance Stacey Wymer lead most of these teams.
There are also two forecasting teams; one focusing on the economy and tax and the other focusing on the fiscals. The first team is led by Manager, Modelling, Research and Forecasting Manager Peter Gardiner and the second team is led by Chief Government Accountant Jayne Winfield.
Treasury’s Secretary and Chief Executive Iain Rennie ultimately heads up Treasury’s work. He’s been around a while, including acting as economic advisor to former National Prime Minister Jim Bolger. He regularly meets with the finance minister and will have been present at the run of Budget meetings.
Deputy Secretary Budget and Fiscal Performance Chris Bunny and Assistant Secretary Budget and Fiscal Strategy Andrew Rutledge also both play key oversight roles.
The other ministers at the decision-making table
It may be Willis’ show but she pulls the Budget together with input from three associate finance ministers: Chris Bishop (National), David Seymour (ACT) and Shane Jones (NZ First).
This group plays a critical role in deciding what’s in and what’s out ‒ and ensuring each coalition party’s priorities are fairly reflected in the Budget. The Budget needs the support of all three coalition partners to get through.
Seymour typically sees his role as one of pushing Willis towards greater fiscal rectitude, while Jones is more likely to push for big state intervention, as befits both of their parties’ political bents.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon will have dipped in and out of these meetings to keep a watch on how things are progressing, with Willis doing most of the grunt work.
Treasury process
It’s Treasury that advises Willis which agencies should be invited to make funding pitches in the Budget proposals phase. The departments picked are generally those affected by big funding commitments or which have been promised increases to baseline funding.
The Budget proposals phase takes up to six months. Treasury liaises with agencies’ chief financial officers while the vote teams go back and forth with department experts over the finer details.
In the package development phase, Treasury gives its advice to Willis; things like fund this, scale this back, don’t fund this. This feedback is just that; it’s independent and doesn’t consider the Government’s political objectives. It’s up to the finance minister as to how much, if any, of this advice she takes on board.
The fourth phase ‒ production ‒ is triggered after the Budget is signed off by Cabinet. It marks the start of a lot of writing; estimates documents, media releases.
Estimates ‒ running into thousands of pages ‒ set out to agencies how much money they’ve been given sign-off to spend and have to be legislated. Media releases ‒ pulled together by press secretaries ‒ are a minister’s carefully curated pitch for what they’ve managed to secure for their portfolios in the Budget.
There is a special publication team that does all the documenting, creating and designing of these documents ‒ including doing stuff on the website. (A few years ago, some of the Budget was published online early by accident, leading to quite the furore.)
Treasury uses Petone printer Blue Star to print and bind all the documents once they’re done. It also hires a security guard to watch the documents until they’re delivered into the lock-up on Budget day. Budget leaks are serious ‒ not just because of the breach of protocol but because of the potential market on impacts.
Budget Day is a bit like Christmas for journalists and analysts. Both groups head into the high-security lock-up in the Beehive’s banquet hall at 10am ‒ some newsrooms camp out at the door before it opens in order to secure front row seats.
The restricted briefing runs until 2pm, during which the finance minister gives a speech and takes questions. Treasury officials ‒ their work not over just yet ‒ are in the room to answer any technical questions about the Budget documents.
Come 2pm, the Budget is made public for all the world to see. It will be pored over for weeks and the subject of many questions and a lot of commentary. On Budget Day, it’s presented in the House and debated by Parliamentarians.