Budget 2026 preview: Minister to focus on expanding capacity in healthcare system

Health

Health minister Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has made few promises in regards to her budget wish list, hoping to avoid repeating the mistakes of failed pledges that haunt her predecessors.

The one thing she has said is that she wants to shift the focus from additional current spending — wages, operational costs, etc — to capital investment in infrastructure.

As much of her early time in office has been spent battling over the completion of the National Children’s Hospital, it’s easy to see why she might be focused on expanding capacity in the healthcare system over incremental improvements to existing services.

New wards and operating theatres are all well and good, but staffing them will be another issue altogether, and one this budget looks likely to ignore.

Excise

The “old reliables” will be updated for the modern age with a vape tax set to be in place by next month.

The measure was announced last year but will only come into force this year, having already been confirmed at a flat rate of 50c per millilitre of e-liquid. Whether tobacco and alcohol excise will also be increased remains to be seen.

In the past, fossil fuel levies were a typical revenue raising source in the budget, but in the context of rising prices, that’s unlikely this year. Instead, the lower rate of Vat on energy bills, due to expire at the end of the month, is expected to be increased.