This weekend marks the point where ordinary hard-working New Zealanders start paying for the misguided policies of the Ardern-Peters Coalition Government, National Party Finance Spokesperson Amy Adams says.

“National’s 2017 Budget would have made workers on the average wage $1000 a year better off starting from this weekend thanks to tax threshold changes,” Ms Adams says.

“Also from this weekend superannuitant couples would have been better off by $676 a year in their superannuation.

“Instead, under the Labour-NZ First Coalition Government most hard-working wage earners get nothing on 1 April, and superannuitants and those receiving working for families will have to wait an extra three months for any gain. Even then superannuitants will simply be given the poorly conceived and designed winter energy payment which is neither for energy nor for winter.”

Ms Adams says workers and superannuitants are paying a big price just so that first year university students can get one year’s free tuition.

“All the money Labour saved from cancelling the tax changes has gone straight to first year tertiary students in a failed policy that has resulted in no extra people studying.

“Meanwhile the health sector has so far seen less than nothing – with the previous Government’s $100 million investment in new mental health initiatives sitting on the shelf. The allocation for health in the next budget is unlikely to be any more than what National would have provided.

“Cancelling National’s tax changes for hard-working Kiwis and giving the money to tertiary students is poor policy.

“Unfortunately it’s now happening under Ardern and Peters.”

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