Today's budget is an attack on working class new Zealanders, says the Maritime Union.
The increase in GST from 12.5 percent to 15 percent was taking money from the pockets of workers to pay for tax cuts for people like Prime Minister John Key, who had so much money they would have trouble knowing what to do with it, said union general secretary Joe Fleetwood.
"It is a wealth transfer from low to middle income earners to the wealthy."
GST was a regressive tax that would hit struggling New Zealand families hard.
Mr Fleetwood said that a major problem for New Zealand was growing inequality of wealth.
He said the idea promoted by Mr Key that only high income earners contributed to New Zealand's economy and society was both offensive and wrong.
"If we are at the stage where New Zealand is being held hostage by a tiny minority of the super rich, maybe it is time to question whether we still live in a democracy?"
Mr Fleetwood said that international evidence showed that excessive wealth was being accumulated by a few at the top end of the wealth scale, while the majority of workers were squeezed by rising costs and static incomes.
