The Pope says world leaders need to do more to help the poor and to end what he calls the 'cult of money'.

Pope Francis has spoken about the financial crisis for the first time, during a speech to diplomats at the Vatican. "Money has to serve, not to rule", he told them, adding that the 'worship of the golden calf' had found a 'new and heartless image in the current cult of money'.  He was referring to the golden idol made by Aaron to satisfy the Israelites when Moses went up Mount Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments.

Referring to the widening gap between rich and poor, he said that reforms were needed urgently.

He says the economy was 'a dictatorship which lacked any real human goal'.

Pope Francis, who took his name from St Francis of Assisi, was known in his home country of Argentina to champion the cause of the poor.

In a separate development, the Vatican bank - one of the most secretive in the world - is to lift the veil of mystery by launching a website and publishing an annual report for the first time.

RBG News

A senior British MP is describing Google as "evil".

Margaret Hodge is chairwoman of Parliament's influential public accounts committee.

She's accusing the US internet giant of unethically avoiding paying vast amounts of tax in Britain.

Margaret Hodge is questioning the company's vice-president Matt Brittin about whether the company's trying to disguise the way it operates to minimise its tax bill in the UK.

Google insists all of its advertising in Europe is sold through its offices in Ireland.

Hodge is accusing Google of devious, calculated and unethical behaviour in deliberately manipulating the reality of the business to avoid paying its fair share of tax to the common good.

She says it's using smoke and mirrors to avoid paying tax.

Newstalk ZB / RBG News

A cyclone that slammed into Bangladesh has forced the evacuation of one million people and killed 14, but fears of devastating damage has eased after the storm weakened over land.

Bangladesh authorities have found the bodies of 22 people from neighbouring Myanmar, missing since their boat capsized on Monday as they fled the oncoming storm.

Another 31 people from the boat are still missing.

Newstalk ZB / RBG News

New Zealand's relationship with the US is believed to be nearing the level it enjoyed before it was sunk by the great nuclear ships dispute.

Barack Obama has announced he is boosting spending in the Pacific region to $1.2 billion.

Analysts say that shows the US is continuing to move closer to us, and away from traditional hotspots Europe and the Middle East.

Foreign policy and defence specialist Stephen Hoadley says there are plenty of signs New Zealand is very much "back in the club".

He believes in our relationship is getting pretty close to where it was in 1985, when the nuclear ships dispute "disturbed and diverted it" for quite a long time.

Associate Professor Hoadley says the US refocusing on our region has spin-offs for trade, investment and defence.

Newstalk ZB / RBG News

A forecast deluge and thick terrain are making the situation more urgent for search teams looking for a man missing in Pureora Forest Park in South Waikato.

Sixty-three-year-old Leslie Wright's car was found yesterday on a remote forestry road near Bennydale.

Search teams have been scouring the area with the help of a tracking dog.

Sergeant Phil Bell says footsteps were found heading in the direction of a large swamp, which he says is cause for concern.

Mr Wright's cold weather kit, sleeping bag, and food were found in his vehicle. Sergeant Bell says Mr Wright is an experienced bushman so hopes he would have recognised the swamp danger and backtracked.

He says it's now a matter of trying to locate where he backtracked to.

Sergeant Bell says search teams that remained in the bush overnight will be replaced today as the operation expands.

The reinforcements have come from across the North Island.

RBG News / Newstalk ZB

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the RAF's legendary Dambuster bombings of dams on the Ruhr River in Germany.

On May the 17th, 1943, Lancaster bombers dropped a never before used 'bouncing bomb' that skipped across the water before hitting the dams.

The bomb was designed by the brilliant British engineer and scientist Barnes Wallis to bounce over the top of torpedo nets which had been placed inside the dam to prevent the structure being bombed.

The Mohne and Eder dams were successfully breached,causing damage to factories supplying the Nazi war effort and disrupting hydro-electric power.

The raid was immortalised in Paul Brickhill's book, and the subsequent movie "The Dambusters", starring Richard Todd and Michael Redgrave.

94-year-old Tauranga resident Les Munro, who's the last surviving member of the Dambusters air crew, is in England today attending the commemorations.

He's thrilled he can participate in remembering the day.

The breached Mohne Dam following the Dambusters' attack.

Bill English's fifth budget may have had more money to spend than the ones in 2012 or 2011 - but he is still keeping a tight hold on the Government's purse strings. 

One of the measures which has generated a great deal of comment is the plan to arrest people student loans at the border and engage debt collectors to track them down overseas. It's being described as a drastic measure.

That's just one among a number of initiatives announced in the Budget to crack down on people not repaying their student loans.

University Students Association president Pete Hodkinson says the Government should be making it easier for graduates to repay their loan. He says treating overseas-based borrowers as tax evading criminals is a bit extreme.  Mr Hodkinson says the approach should be to make it as easy as possible for students and graduates to meet their obligations.

As part of the Budget, the Government announced that Meridian Energy's to be the next state owned energy company up for partial sale, with the partial float to happen before the end of this year.

Finance Minister Bill English says Meridian's a natural follow-on from the Mighty River Power float and the interest it's stimulated. He says a number of people who were interested in shares didn't get involved and the hope is they can be encouraged to take shares in Meridian.

However, Green co-leader Russel Norman is fuming that the asset floats are continuing. He says the sale of Meridian will see power prices go up and shares in the company go to foreigners and the wealthy. Dr Norman says we have a Government of the two percent, for the two percent.

The Government's proposing a number of changes to the way Social Housing works in New Zealand, including allowing private groups such as the Salvation Army or the Presbyterian Church to take on the role currently only carried out by Housing New Zealand. Also, state house tenants who're deemed to have appropriate income will be encouraged to find other housing options.

Hone Harawira's condemning that move, saying the Government's just trying to lower thresholds so they can kick even poorer people out of state homes. He says people on the minimum wage already earn too much to qualify for a state house, and the Government's trying to make it worse.

There has also been reaction to what is OUT of the Budget as well as what is in it. There's disappointment yesterday's Budget failed to provide clarity on the Government's involvement in key infrastructure projects for Canterbury's rebuild.

$303-million has been set aside for the Christchurch Central Recovery Plan but it's unclear what it's earmarked for. The Government and Christchurch City Council are still in discussions over the city's anchor projects.

Chamber of Commerce chief executive Peter Townsend understands the complications around this, but says the city needs some predictability around key pieces of infrastructure so it can move on.

The Government's also under pressure to let the country know what it'll do to help hungry kids.

It's promising there'll be an announcement in the next few weeks that'll help those in poverty, but won't give any details.

Labour leader David Shearer believes it will be scrambling to come up with a policy.

Greens co-leader Russel Norman is accusing the government of over-egging solutions to housing affordability and poverty reduction.

Hone Harawira says poor people deserve to be fed, not blamed.

The government's announced a number of initiatives for Maor, such as an $8 million package for a new language research and development fund over the next four years.

But PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Hamiora Bowkett says despite the funding initiatives for Maori language and education, there aren't any big ticket items for Maori.

And while the Maori Party might be claiming the Budget bring gains for Maori via cadetships, and extra training places, Labour MP Shane Jones begs to differ. He says introducing reviewable state house tenancies will disproportionately affect Maori and the extra funding gained for Maori language is just breadcrumbs.

More money goes into education as a whole - but the Tertiary Education Union is upset older people keen to study are being discouraged by the Government.

The budget announcement has seen a $400 million clampdown on student allowances with people over 40-years-old only eligible for 120 weeks of payments.

Union secretary Sharn Riggs says taking any money away from student allowances will attack the quality of people's education. She says capping allowances for older students will make retraining almost impossible and funding will only be available for such people to do an undergraduate degree.

Sharn Riggs says tertiary funding is going backwards and today's budget reflects that once again. There are also concerns the Budget focuses too closely on private education, and leaves public education out in the cold.

The Tertiary Education Union says the budget once again reflects long term under-funding of the tertiary education system.

Ms Riggs says the government is stripping away money from students both directly through their loans, allowances and higher fees, but also indirectly by attacking the quality of their education.

She says people should be frustrated to see taxpayer money going into the pockets of private enterprises when there are public institutions being starved of money. Sharn Riggs says again it's par for the course the way this Government favours the private sector while under funding the public sector.

A man whose full time job is caring for his two adult disabled children says the Government's disabled funding announcement is disgusting.

The Ministry of Health will provide $92 million over four years to pay carers who look after their own disabled adult family members after the Court of Appeal found its policy on the matter were discriminatory.

Cliff Robinson says once a person has a disabled child, their life changes forever. He says if you put them in care you worry about them and if you look after them yourself you're confronted every day with a difficult job to do. Mr Robinson says parents need recognition for this task they do and 92 million dollars goes nowhere in achieving that.

The business community seems to be pleased with this year's Budget.

Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O'Reilly is giving it an eight out of ten.

He says one of the interesting things is that the Government is moving into some of Labour's territory.

Phil O'Reilly says he's interested from a business perspective to see what it's doing around social housing, housing warrants and social welfare reform. He's pleased ACC levies are to be cut, but thinks it should have happened several years ago.

Mr O'Reilly says businesses think of ACC levies as a tax because they don't feel like they can control it - so essentially it's a bit of a tax cut for them.

Bill English says ACC levies are able to be cut because the corporation's financial outlook is much better. There'll be 40-percent lower ACC levy rates for households and businesses.

The Finance Minister says they've been waiting for ACC's good performance to be maintained.

He says that's because they don't want to cut levies and then go and put them up again.

RBG News/Newstalk ZB

The Government has issued the following summary of today's Budget announcement:

Progress in the Government's programme while on track to surplus

• Provides a suite of measures to build faster economic growth, support more jobs and deliver a more innovative and productive economy.

• Forecasts economic growth to average between 2 and 3 per cent a year over the next four years.

• Includes a $100 million-a-year internationally-focused growth and innovation package to boost investment in science, research and development, and tourism.

• Confirms an additional $1.5 billion of investments from the Future Investment Fund to spend proceeds from the Government's share offer programme.

• Allows for ACC levy cuts on households and businesses of around $300 million in 2014/15, increasing to around $1 billion in 2015/16.

• Provides significant extra money to help low-income families through a number of targeted initiatives.

• $5.1 billion of new operating spending in the current year and over the next four years for initiatives across areas such as health, education, welfare, and housing.

• Confirms an additional $2.1 billion to help rebuild Christchurch, taking the Government's total share of the rebuild to around $15 billion.

Budget initiatives at a glance

(All figures for four years to 2016/17 unless otherwise stated).

Responsibly managing the Government's finances

The Budget confirms the Government remains on track to meet its two key fiscal targets – returning to surplus by 2014/15 and bringing net government debt back down to 20 per cent of GDP by 2020.

• Forecasts show an operating surplus before gains and losses of $75 million in 2014/15 – a remarkable turnaround from the record $18.4 billion deficit in 2010/11.

• Net core Crown debt is forecast to peak at 28.7 per cent of GDP in 2014/15, before falling to 17.6 per cent of GDP by 2020/21.

• Core Crown expenses are expected to drop below 31 per cent of GDP by 2014/15, down from 35 per cent of GDP two years ago.

Budget 2013 confirms decisions to ensure that debt is capped and then reduced:

• The operating allowance is $900 million in Budget 2013, compared with $800 million signalled previously, and $1 billion in Budget 2014, compared with $1.2 billion signalled previously. From 2015 onwards, operating allowances will grow by 2 per cent per Budget.

• The Government intends to delay contributions to the New Zealand Superannuation Fund until net core Crown debt is no higher than 20 per cent of GDP. This is expected in 2020/21.

Building a more productive and competitive economy

Budget 2013 continues the Government's unwavering focus on increasing longer-term growth, productive investment and exports by investing heavily in measures to help businesses become more competitive.

• A $100 million-a-year internationally-focused growth package to provide extra research and development assistance to businesses, additional funding for the tourism sector, and international education marketing.

• Allowing for ACC levy reductions of around $300 million in 2014/15, increasing to around $1 billion in 2015/16. When combined with the $630 million levy reduction in 2012/13, these changes will amount to around 40 per cent lower ACC levy rates for households and businesses.

• Budget 2013 confirms a further $1.5 billion of new capital investment from the Future Investment Fund, which was established to invest proceeds from the Government's share offer programme. It includes:

o $426 million for the redevelopment of Christchurch and Burwood Hospitals. As announced previously, this will be the single biggest hospital investment in New Zealand's history.

o $50 million to speed up the School Network Upgrade Project which enhances the technological capability of schools.

o A further $94 million for the fourth year of KiwiRail's Turnaround Plan.

o $80 million for irrigation projects, as announced previously.

• Meridian Energy will be the next company prepared for a share offer to New Zealanders, in the second half of 2013.

• Legislation will be introduced to improve housing affordability by delivering flexible regulatory tools to councils under accords between the Government and councils in areas where housing is least affordable.

• A memorandum of understanding with the Reserve Bank Governor confirms a range of measures, if required, to protect the economy from periods of excessive growth in credit and asset prices, and to promote financial system stability.

• A number of revenue measures, including a proposal to allow loss-making start-up companies to claim tax losses on research and development.

Better public services

The Ministerial Committee on Poverty has endorsed a number of important initiatives to help low-income families. They include:

• $100 million over three years for the Warm Up New Zealand: Healthy Homes programme targeting low-income households, particularly those with children or high health needs, for home insulation.

• More than $21 million over the next four years for rheumatic fever prevention.

• An extra $1.5 million for Budgeting Services in 2013/14, in addition to the $8.9 million provided already in 2012/13.

• A whiteware procurement programme to enable beneficiaries to purchase new appliances under warranty using Ministry of Social Development repayable grants.

• A commitment to investigate and pilot a partnership with NGOs and financial institutions to support the provision of low or no interest loans for low-income borrowers.

• The trial on Housing New Zealand properties of a Warrant of Fitness programme for rental housing.

Welfare

$188.6 million over four years for the next stage of welfare reform to help more New Zealanders off benefits and into work. This follows a $287.5 million investment in Budget 2012, and includes:

• 354 extra Work and Income staff to provide intensive help and support.

• People receiving the sole parent support or supported living payments, who go off the benefit and don't have work expectations to retain some of their benefit in the first few weeks.

• Additional funding to allow Work and Income to contract external providers to deliver case management and wrap-around services for particular groups of beneficiaries.

• Further developing the investment approach to welfare.

• Additional funding to provide for an independent workability assessment by experts to establish a client's work-readiness.

Health

Over the next four years, $1.6 billion for new health initiatives and to meet cost pressures and population growth. This takes total health spending to $14.7 billion in 2013/14. $1 billion of this extra funding goes to District Health Boards to take account of population changes and inflationary pressures.

Extra health spending over the next four years includes:

• $70 million for aged care and dementia services.

• $35.5 million for diabetes and heart disease.

• $100 million extra to meet population changes and cost pressures in disability support services.

• $48 million for more elective operations such as hip replacements and cataracts.

• $25 million to increase the number of people being screened for diseases, particularly breast cancer.

• More than $21 million to reduce the incidence of rheumatic fever and undertake rheumatic fever vaccine research.

• $18.2 million for a new mothers and babies initiative, with details to be announced shortly.

• $12.8 million for patients with long-term conditions such as diabetes and asthma.

• $7.3 million for 20 additional medical student places.

• $7 million to increase coverage of preventative health tests for four-year olds.

• $4.3 million to improve care and men's awareness of prostate cancer.

Education

In the current year and over the next four years, around $900 million for education initiatives across early childhood, primary and secondary education. This takes total spending on these sectors to $9.7 billion in 2013/14.

Extra education spending in the current year and over the next four years includes:

• $173 million for early childhood education, including $41 million for equity funding and $39 million for universal subsidies.

• $215 million for schooling, including nearly $80 million for operations grants, $64 million for Positive Behaviour for Learning and $38 million for teaching quality initiatives.

• $92.4 million for Greater Christchurch Education Recovery and Renewal and 21st Century Schools.

• $73.1 million of operating expenditure to support the ongoing maintenance and costs of the school property network.

More than $130 million over four years of new investment and reprioritised funding in tertiary education. It includes:

• $36 million for the expansion of Māori and Pasifika trades training.

• $27 million to boost funding for science and engineering courses.

• Nearly $29 million to equalise funding rates between Private Training Establishments and Tertiary Education Institutions.

• $32 million to support an increase in the proportion of young people with higher-level qualifications.

Law and order

• Police will reprioritise more than $160 million over several years to give frontline officers access to new technology such as smartphones and tablets, which will improve their performance and productivity.

• The Ministry of Justice will receive $4.4 million from the Justice Sector Fund to expand its restorative justice services.

• The Department of Corrections will invest $10 million over two years from the Justice Sector Fund to increase support for offenders after their release, with the goal of reducing reoffending.

Housing

• $26.6 million to extend the income-related rent subsidy scheme to

non-government providers.

• Legislation will allow community housing providers to become registered prior to receiving an income related rent subsidy for new, eligible tenants.

• $46.8 million to extend reviewable tenancies to all Housing Corporation tenants who signed up to their existing properties before 1 July 2011.

• Responsibility for assessing entitlement to social housing support will be shifted from Housing New Zealand to the Ministry of Social Development.

Rebuilding Christchurch

• The total estimated cost of the earthquake damage in our second largest city has been increased to $40 billion from the $30 billion of previous estimates.

• Budget 2013 confirms $2.1 billion of additional government funding to the earthquake recovery, including $900 million of new capital from the Future Investment Fund. This will take the Government's total share of the rebuild to around $15 billion. This extra funding includes:

o An additional $300 million earmarked for the Central City recovery.

o Funding for final land zoning decisions.

o Work of the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority.

o Redevelopment of the Christchurch and Burwood hospitals, a justice and emergency services precinct, and tertiary education institutions.

Media release / RBG News

Qantas and Emirates have been given permission to share services on trans-Tasman routes.

Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee says the move will bring benefits to airline passengers, exporters and the tourism sector.

The agreement means Emirates will be able to offer Queenstown and Wellington as tourism destinations.

The airlines will be able to cooperate on passenger and cargo operations for five years.

Newstalk ZB / RBG News

The Earthquake Recovery Minister has unveiled a disputes service for the Christchurch rebuild.

The Residential Advisory Service opens its doors at eight tomorrow morning.

Gerry Brownlee announced the highly anticipated service from the scene of partially demolished red-zone home.

He also took the opportunity to reveal the Government insurance company, Southern Response, has settled a third of its earthquake related claims.

And he says more than 2000 red zone properties have now been cleared.

Newstalk ZB / RBG News