“It’s not the no-frills Budget, it’s a blowout Budget, what we see is a Government that remains addicted to spending,” Luxon said.
“We see a huge amount of blowout in the Budget in terms of debt, in terms of deficits for longer.”
The attack came after Finance Minister Grant Robertson today delivered a spending package that some believe might threaten to undermine the Reserve Bank’s attempts to tackle inflation.
It included cost-of-living spending announcements - expanding free early childhood education, abolishing prescription co-payments, and free public transport for children - that could blunt the effects of higher interest rates and inflation, which Treasury now expects will be higher for longer.
Luxon, making a speech in the House, said he saw “no ideas” in the Budget to tackle the underlying causes of inflation and retain skilled New Zealanders.
“Prime Minister, your job is to fight to keep Kiwis home in this country,” he said.
“This Budget needed to deliver a plan for New Zealanders to grow the economy and it didn’t.”
Luxon told reporters afterwards that National did not support the cost of living initiatives. They preferred their own policy of tax credits to families for childcare and called free public transport a “nice-to-have”.
Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson said there were important steps in the Budget but it fell short in supporting people and addressing the climate crisis. They also called out the Government for not making any tax changes.
The Greens supported the public transport initiatives, funding for early childhood education and making homes warmer and more energy efficient, which they had campaigned on.
But the Greens wanted to see tax changes to deal with the major challenges.
“Aotearoa is facing a perfect storm of crises super-charged by climate change: an outrageous and immoral level of income and wealth inequality; people struggling to put food on the table, pay the bills, and heat their homes as massive corporations cream it; and farms, towns and cities ravaged by floods and storms,” Davidson said.
“The Greens will continue fighting to secure genuine action to end poverty by lifting incomes to a level that means everyone has what they need to thrive.”
Co-leader James Shaw, who is also the Climate Change Minister, said he was frustrated too that the Budget stopped short of doing what was needed to confront the climate crisis with the urgency it demands.
Act leader David Seymour, in his speech to the House, said: “The Government is running out of other people’s money, running out of excuses, running out of options and it’s going to do a huge amount of damage in the process.”
Seymour spent a few minutes talking about law and order early in his speech, saying vigilante justice was occurring because the Government wasn’t protecting people well enough.”[Dairy and convenience store owners] don’t know when the next robbery or ram raids is going to hit... so they’re starting to fight back.”
Prime Minister Chris Hipkins in his speech acknowledged times had been tough for families, but lauded the fact that it was estimated New Zealand would avoid a recession.
“That’s not by accident,” Hipkins said, crediting the work of Robertson.
He welcomed the prediction inflation would return to between 1-3 percent by the end of next year and reiterated the Government’s long-term focus.
“Even in cost of living crisis, we need to be building for tomorrow,” referencing the $6b devoted to the National Resilience Plan to future-proof communities for severe weather events.
Citing National’s tax receipt plan, Hipkins jibed that he hoped some National MPs had kept their receipts when they selected their new leader as he suspected some would “want a refund”.
“Well done Grant Robertson, I am proud of the Budget you have delivered,” Hipkins said to conclude his speech.
