This budget occurs after a year of several lockdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand and focuses on economic recovery.

Māori Party co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was "cautiously optimistic" about the budget, praising the government for "accept[ing] a need to take a targeted approach rather than a universal one".

[8] National Party and Opposition leader Judith Collins said that the Government "lacks the plan and ambition" in this budget and that it does not offer "any direction for getting the country back on track to prosperity" and that it is "setting New Zealand up to fail".

ACT leader David Seymour criticised the budget, saying it "ignore[s] reality" and does not have anything for middle-class New Zealanders.

[8] Children's Commissioner Andrew Becroft praised the budget for being a "very solid, continuing step on our journey of halving child poverty by 2028", but said there was still more to be done.