Research released today by the Council of Trade Unions (CTU) shows the opposition National Party’s headline tax policy - a key component of their response to the cost of living crisis - would widen inequality with luxurious tax cuts for the rich, despite "embarrassment" for some National Party MPs who have seen the consequences of comparative underinvestment in their communities.

"The National Party would not only squander about $11bn of tax revenue over three years, but those cuts would give ten times as much money to wealthy New Zealanders as they do to lower and middle-income earners," said Edward Miller, FIRST Union researcher and policy analyst.

"They’re luxurious, high-end tax cuts available only to the very wealthiest New Zealanders, the kind that might consider donating to the National Party's 2023 election campaign."

"Minimum wage workers are supposed to be seduced by two or three extra dollars per week but the infrastructure that serves them - our schools, hospitals, communities - will fall back into decline as the Thatcherite fever dream resumes."

Meanwhile, new National Party candidate for Rangitata, James Meagher, told Stuff last week that it was "quite embarrassing" that his last pay rise was likely more than what his mother - a supermarket worker - earns, which, in his words, "really says a lot about how we value people in society."

"It’s refreshing to hear this kind of honesty from a politician, but frustrating that nonetheless his Party has campaigned vociferously to shut down Fair Pay Agreements, which would significantly improve the working lives of people like his mother," said Mr Miller.

"We need ambitious thinking in 2023 that measures up to the challenges we face as a country - growing inequality, a climate crisis and a rapidly changing world - not more 1980s re-makes and economic policies that pit people against each other rather than bring us together to raise the standard for everyone."

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