- By Christopher Luxon, Leader of the Opposition and MP for Botany
Last month, the Government released Budget 2022 which confirmed that New Zealand is going backwards under Labour faster than ever.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson needed to focus this Budget on helping the squeezed middle to overcome the escalating cost of living crisis and stop Kiwis falling further and further behind. But it’s clear he’s failed.
Instead, what Grant Robertson has delivered is a Backwards Budget.
Kiwis, the economy and outcomes are all going backwards under Labour and the Budget forecasts confirm the situation is only going to get worse.
New Zealand is experiencing the worst cost of living crisis in a generation. Inflation is at a 30-year-high, expected to run rampant for years to come and wages aren’t keeping up.
Mortgage costs are up because of rising interest rates, rent is up $140 per week, food price inflation is the highest in a decade at 6.4 per cent and petrol is up over $3 per litre.
More and more Kiwis are falling behind each week, squeezed by growing costs and a Government that refuses to offer them meaningful income tax relief while ramming through the biggest spend-up in New Zealand history.
Labour’s temporary cost of living package will do little to support Kiwi households through the cost-of-living crisis. It is band-aid economics made up on the fly, with even Treasury warning the Government that the one-off cost of living payment is a poor mechanism for addressing a long-term problem.
The squeezed middle are paying the price for Labour’s economic mismanagement and if you are on the average wage of $72,000 or higher, you will get nothing under Labour.
Under National’s tax plan to inflation-adjust tax brackets, someone on the average wage would get $860 every year. This would allow Kiwis to keep more of what they earn.
But Labour wants to keep the extra tax revenue because they are addicted to spending, which means the government books are also going backwards.
Not only did Labour give themselves an extra $6 billion for this budget – the biggest ever spend-up in New Zealand’s history – but they’ve also raided future budgets. They are spending $2 billion from Budget 2023 and $0.4 billion from Budget 2024.
And that’s before you count climate spending and the cost-of-living band-aid which are on top of all that, taking the total spend-up to more than $9 billion per year of government spending.
Yet there’s little to show for it, with no clear plan or targets for delivering better outcomes for New Zealanders. Under Labour, wait times for surgery and specialist assessments have blown out, literacy and numeracy achievement rates have hit alarming lows and violent crime and gang numbers have exploded.
They’ve added more than 10,000 bureaucrats to the public service, yet outcomes are getting worse.
New Zealand needs a government with financial discipline and a culture where government cares about how every single dollar is spent and the outcomes it will achieve. Kiwis across the country are having to tighten their belts and look after every dollar they’re spending and the Government should be doing the same.
New Zealand is going backwards, fast. We simply cannot afford this Labour Government.
A National Government I lead will deliver for the squeezed middle and provide meaningful, long-term relief from the crippling cost of living.
