Thursday 30 May 2019

Auckland Mayor Phil Goff has welcomed increased spending on health, children and homelessness as part of the Government’s 2019 Budget released today.

Mayor Goff was also pleased with the Government’s commitment to fund the increased costs of constructing Auckland’s City Rail Link.

Mayor Phil Goff says, “The Government’s Budget is clearly focused on helping vulnerable New Zealanders and Aucklanders with a record allocation of nearly $2 billion to tackle mental health in New Zealand. Mental health is a significant problem in our city.

“Funding for child wellbeing will help address family and sexual violence in our country and help pull children out of state care.

“Funding of $197 million to support Housing First to tackle homelessness will make a big difference. The Housing First model has proven successful in Auckland and a significant amount of the funding should come to our city where we have the most need.

“I welcome $9.4 million over the next four years to strengthen ethnic communities which will benefit Auckland as New Zealand’s most ethnically diverse region.

“Indexing benefits to increases in the average wage are estimated to lift the incomes of almost 340,000 people. This will help those on low incomes in Auckland to meet the costs of living.

“$3 billion more in borrowing by Housing New Zealand and $2 billion more in borrowing by Crown Infrastructure Partners shows the Government’s commitment to delivering more houses.

“We have worked closely with Government to fund increased infrastructure investment in Auckland to provide more houses, and I will be advocating for Auckland to receive its share of future investment to accelerate the pace and scale of house building in our city.

“We are making record levels of investment in Auckland’s infrastructure especially in transport and housing. With Auckland getting more than half of the projected population growth in New Zealand, it is important that this is recognised in Government’s spending in these areas,” said Phil Goff.

ENDS

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