What about the Battlers?

Media release from the National Distribution Union

October 8, 2008

The real strugglers have been left out in the cold by Nationals tax cuts says the National Distribution Union.

"The poorest working people in New Zealand hold down part time minimum wage jobs, may be on a benefit or are raising kids on one or two incomes well below National's $40,000 starting point for families to get a tax cut before 2011.

"These are the people John Key has decided don't need more money. Working parents earning less than $40,000 will wait till 2011 for no more than $5 a week while a single person earning $100,000 gathers up another $70 by then.

"National's tax cuts add to the inequities already faced by the working poor and will push them even further into the margins of society."

Ms Harré says the small improvement most other people will get on top of the cuts already implemented by Labour will come at a high price.

"It wasn't long ago that John Key was telling us how much he wanted to improve things for the underclass. The only thing he has offered them so far is a longer prison sentence."

ENDS

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