Jacinda Ardern has told the House she is proud of the Budget and its focus of “leaving no one behind”.
The Prime Minister listed the agenda of the Budget in reply to National leader Judith Collins’ criticism that it “was a Budget for benefits, not for jobs”.
She said the priority of the Budget was good, decent jobs, a growing economy and a focus “on leaving no one behind".
“That is our agenda, and I’m proud of it,” she said.
In support of her claim around jobs, Ardern said 221,000 people are projected to gain employment over the next four years as a result of spending in the Budget, with unemployment forecast to fall to 4.2 per cent.
The Finance Minister said the changes were designed to reduce inequality and provide stimulus to the economy. (Source: Other)
“[That would be] lower than National ever got it after the GFC [global financial crisis],” she noted.
“Our strong recovery is expected to continue with annual average real GDP growth of 4.4 per cent in 2023, putting us back at pre-Covid levels.
“The changes we have made as a Government mean more than 100,000 families will be $175 per week better off, and child poverty will reduce.”
Ardern went on to say that the Government could not afford to not take the next step to address child poverty, despite being in the middle of Covid recovery.
“Today, we lift weekly main benefit rates by between $32 and $55 per adult in line with the recommendations made by the Welfare Expert Advisory Group,” she said of the increase that comes in as a priority on July 1.
“We must address the need we have in this country. This is about the basics: the ability of someone to put food on the table, to pay the power bill, to put shoes on your child’s feet," Ardern said in a statement after her speech in Parliament.
“We are targeting what we are doing here today towards the things New Zealanders would consider both basic and right.”
The benefit increases will also provide extra stimulus in the economy, Ardern said.
“We know that lifting the incomes of those who have the smallest amount of discretionary income has a stimulatory effect. It will go to food, services — the things our kids need to thrive. It will go into local economies,” she said.
Ardern defended the rise of the weekly job seeker benefit to $315 in April, saying “no one can argue that we lack an incentive to work in New Zealand”.
“What our system was lacking was not incentives, nor drive from those who need it. What it was lacking was dignity,” she said.
The Government had chosen to invest, rather than cut, in this Budget, which also means future generations will not carry a social debt, Ardern said.
Adding National governments in previous tended to choose cuts and user pays, particularly in the 1991 Budget - the mother of all budgets.
“Whether we choose to invest or whether we choose to cut determines whether the next generation carries a social debt,” she said.
“The Budget in 1991 chose cuts, they chose user pays and they left a burden of debt that generations have carried for decades. We are still paying for that decision.
“There will be some who may question whether the substantial changes we make today have gone too far — including, I note, the Opposition. To them, I would just answer with numbers.
“Thirty years. That’s how long it has taken to get benefits back to the rates they were before the mother of all budgets. Yes, we have made progress for those with children, but for those who are single, or couples who don’t have dependents, it has taken us 30 long years,” she said.
“Twenty per cent, that is by how much Treasury predicts the number accessing a job seeker benefit and emergency benefits will fall over the forecast period.
“Finally, I would say 33,000. That’s the number of children estimated to be lifted out of poverty by the changes we are making today.”
Ardern concluded by saying she is “proud of this Budget".
"It will leave a legacy for the next generation and start to undo the harm of the last."
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