“We now know the real cost of being unprepared for Delta was $8 billion,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Comments from Treasury in a Cabinet paper that was quietly put online over the summer holidays shows that the estimated cost of the Delta lockdowns was $8 billion.

“If the Government had the vaccine roll out ready when it should have been, we could have reached where we finally got to in December by September, saving three months of lockdowns and $8 billion of cost.

“The effects of this in the short term is stress and mental health challenges for business owners. In the long term it is the year of the hangover where we have staggering debt and rising inflation.

“Locking the economy down and borrowing $50 billion so far has left us with a mountain of debt and rising prices. The Finance Minister is taxing Kiwis at a record pace to pay for Labour’s pet projects.

“The Government’s hostility to business means they’re spending more time complying and less time producing, pushing up prices.

“Everything this Labour Government does is either about taxing and redistributing or dividing us against each other. There is a better way, as ACT has shown with our alternative budget.

“We would cut the 30 percent marginal tax rate to 17.5 percent. We will reverse the 39 percent tax rate and we will reverse the Government’s interest deductibility change.

"Under our plan the average earner would get between $1286 and $2107 in their pocket a year from tax cuts.

“ACT will continue to fight for middle New Zealand, the battlers being squeezed from every direction by this Government.”

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