National and ACT have lampooned the Labour Government's 2023 Budget, calling it the "Build Back Broke Budget" and the "Blowout Budget".
The 2023 Budget, officially titled "Support for Today, Building for Tomorrow", was released to the public at 2pm today.
It scraps the $5 charge for prescription medicine in most cases, at a cost of $618.6m over four years, extends 20 hours free early childhood education to two-year-olds from March 1 2024, at a cost of $1.2b over four years, and provides free public transport for under-13s, and half price fares for under 25s.
ACT leader David Seymour said Labour's "Build Back Broke Budget" would mean a "blowout for the Government's books" as it tried to "buy the election".
The ACT leader said the amount of spending was too much in the current economic climate. (Source: 1News)
“The Government promised to be back in surplus after five years. Now they’re delivering six years of deficits, and next year they’ll spend $7.6 billion more than they take in. That sort of deficit spending is rocket fuel for inflation."
“They’ll blame the cyclone, they’ll blame Covid-19, they’ll blame the Russians. They’ll blame everyone but themselves. The truth is that only $1 billion of their $7 billion blowout is for cyclone recovery. Oil prices are lower than before the war. Covid-19 is officially over. The common denominator in big spending is Grant Robertson."
Seymour said it was "fiscal incontinence on a previously unimaginable scale".
“When the history books are written about Grant Robertson they’ll say, ‘He came, he borrowed, he bankrupted us all'.’
“We can understand why Labour would like to get rid of prescription charges and let kids ride public transport for free, but all of that is going to be eaten up by inflation driven by out-of-control government spending.
“Blowing out spending will blowout inflation which will blowout household budgets. It’s as simple as that.
“Labour’s out-of-control spending now means higher taxes, higher inflation, and higher interest rates tomorrow. Future generations will be building back broke.
National leader Christopher Luxon said while Prime Minister Chris Hipkins had promised a bread and butter budget, he had delivered a "spending spree".
The National leader criticised the Government for having no ideas to "drag New Zealand out of the economic hole". (Source: 1News)
“This is the Blowout Budget, the culmination of Grant Robertson’s massive spending spree as Finance Minister for six years.
“Mr Robertson has blown his own spending limits for the sixth budget in a row.
“The deficit has blown-out to $7.6 billion – a whopping $7.1 billion increase. The return to surplus has been delayed. Operating spending has blown out to $137 billion this year, up $61 billion since Labour entered office. And debt has blown out to $95 billion by 2026."
Luxon said New Zealanders were already "paying the price" for Robertson's "addiction to spending".
“Now Treasury confirms Mr Robertson’s spending will mean interest rates are higher for longer, meaning Kiwis will pay for years to come when they refix their mortgages."
Luxon said the Government should have adjusted tax brackets for inflation.
"Yet again, Labour has refused to do the right thing, instead deciding that they can spend taxpayers’ money better than Kiwis."
He said there was nothing in the Budget for "the majority of hard-working New Zealanders".
The Green Party welcomed the Budget's public transport provisions but urged the Government to "go further" and make half price public transport permanent for everyone.
However, the Greens were less impressed with the Government's Budget 2023 commitment to build 3000 public homes by June 2023, with public housing spokesman Ricardo Menéndez March saying there needed to be an investment in a "massive house building programme".
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