Simon Bridges - Leader of the Opposition

9 October 2018

A $5.5 billion operating surplus shows the Government should not be imposing more taxes on New Zealanders already facing higher living costs, National Party Leader Simon Bridges says.

“The Government has piled on taxes since the election. The extra fuel taxes alone are pushing up the price of petrol for Kiwi motorists by hundreds of dollars a year. It needs to reverse these extra costs.

“This is a Government that cancelled National’s $1000 tax cuts for hardworking New Zealanders on the average wage so that it could spend more. This result shows that was the wrong choice.

“The reason the Government has more money is because New Zealanders have less.

“New Zealanders can’t afford this raid on their back pockets all so the Government can waste their hard earned money on wasteful and untargeted spending.

“It is good to see net debt falling. That result is a testament to National’s solid management of the books for the past nine years. Indeed the result would be even better if the Government hadn’t wasted money on poor spending decisions like the tertiary fees free policy.

“We need to make sure the Government doesn’t use this as an excuse for further poor spending. It’s already shown its only ideas are to tax and spend – it doesn’t have proper regard for Kiwi taxpayers’ hard earned money.”

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