Responding to the Finance Minister’s pre-budget speech this morning, ACT Leader David Seymour says:

“This year’s Budget will be a good start in putting things right for New Zealanders. We now have a Government working in the same reality that Kiwis have been living in for the last couple of years. We’re finding efficiencies and making sacrifices, just as households do every week.

“We’re doing more with less, such as by saving $107 million with a smarter school lunch programme. That means we will be able to deliver tax relief and set aside money for the important stuff, such as by fixing a $1.7 billion funding shortfall in the medicines budget.

“However, Budget 2025 will require a greater level of ambition to cut wasteful spending so that we can have more efficient and effective government services.

“Larger structural changes like merging and disestablishing government departments and cutting spending in areas government doesn’t have a role, like corporate welfare, need to be on the table.

“ACT’s role in government is to ensure that taxpayer money is either spent efficiently, or returned to the households that earned it, whether that be through tax relief or debt reduction. That means keeping options on the table, including significant changes to the size and functions of government.”

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