Labour and the Greens have hit out at aspects of the Finance Minister’s pre-Budget speech, labelling the launch of a new agency a “rebrand” and calling Nicola Willis’ “meaningful but modest” tax relief “crumbs”.
This morning Willis announced a new standalone ‘Social Investment Agency’ which will replace the Social Wellbeing Agency — part of the Public Service Commission.
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said New Zealanders could “expect tax cuts in the form of crumbs for everyone except those who own for a living”.
“These decisions come at the cost of gutting public services, cutting half-price public transport, chopping fees-free prescriptions and slashing benefit increases, making life all the more difficult for anyone but those at the top.
“The Minister of Finance is basically just saying, let them eat cake.”
“Let them eat cake” is the English translation of a phrase attributed to French Queen Marie Antoinette during the French Revolution, the mythology around it suggesting when the Queen was told peasants had no bread to eat, that they might instead eat brioche.
Swarbrick said the Government needed to “stop taking New Zealanders for chumps”.
“The Minister said it herself: the Government’s tax cuts will be modest. However, the price we pay for them will be monumental.”
“Poverty is a political choice and this Government is telling us they’re intent on growing inequality,” she said.
Labour’s social investment spokesperson Ginny Andersen said there was no need to “waste money on another rebrand” in the current economic environment.
“Labour was already investing in data and insights through the Social Wellbeing Agency, which includes a board of CEs of agencies across Government.
“You must include people’s lived experiences if you’re trying to tackle big societal issues like child poverty, family and sexual violence or youth crime. Nicola talks about results — between Budget 2018 and Budget 2023 there were 77,000 fewer children in poverty. There were 28,700 fewer children in material hardship. We’d welcome the same focus on results in Budget 2024.
“If they are going back to the model of looking at people as numbers, and families as a fiscal liability then that’s a step backwards. The devil will be in the detail.”
David Seymour responds
Responding to the Finance Minister’s speech, ACT leader David Seymour said next year’s Budget will require a “greater level of ambition to cut wasteful spending” and to streamline services.
“Larger structural changes like merging and disestablishing Government departments and cutting spending in areas Government doesn’t have a role, like corporate welfare, need to be on the table,” he said in a statement.
“This year’s Budget will be a good start in putting things right for New Zealanders. We now have a Government working in the same reality that Kiwis have been living in for the last couple of years.
“We’re finding efficiencies and making sacrifices, just as households do every week.”
He cited savings from changes made to the school lunch programme as a way to deliver tax relief and set aside money for “the important stuff” such as funding shortfalls in the medicines budget.
“ACT’s role in Government is to ensure that taxpayer money is either spent efficiently, or returned to the households that earned it, whether that be through tax relief or debt reduction.”