This week billions of dollars are going out the door that should’ve been spent on health, education and keeping costs down for people on public transport, homes, prescriptions, and school lunches.

“Kiwis have been sold a lemon with the National Party promising a lot but delivering peanuts for most people,” Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said.

“The families in National’s tax plan are going to be worse off this week than before the Government took office.

“For example, National’s example family gets $50 a week, but is spending at least $80 a week extra because of poor policy decisions to pay for the tax cut:

Wiremu and Mia both work full-time, earning $60,000 each, for an average household income of $120,000. They have two primary school-aged children.

They get $50 a week from the tax cuts, but they’re paying at least $80 more per week – e.g. if they live in Auckland:

• $50 on public transport for their children
• $5 for most prescriptions

   · If they own a home, $25 more in rates and insurance
   · If they don’t own a home, $31 more in rent and they lose the $5000 - $10,000 First Home Grant

“No matter which way you look at it, this family is worse off. Once their kids get to secondary school and the school lunch programme is pared back to a snack, they’ll be forking out more for lunches too.

“These changes are even more dire for pensioners, who will get just $2.50 a week.

“National said their $2.9 billion tax break for landlords would put downward pressure on rents, while in reality rents have gone up 4.8% this year with the Treasury warning ‘rents are forecast to continue rising rapidly’.

“This government has broken its promises to Kiwis. Very few people are getting $250 a fortnight. They borrowed $12 billion to pay for tax cuts, leaving future generations to pick up the tab for something that doesn’t make the difference they claim it does now.

“At the same time they’ve been found out for underfunding the health system. There’s a pause on hiring staff in our hospitals and the buildings themselves aren’t getting the investment needed either.

“Much-needed school classrooms have been put on hold because they haven’t put the money in that was needed for school property.

“The Government can make up all the reasons it likes, but the facts of the matter are Kiwis are worse off, as are our health and education systems under National,” Barbara Edmonds said.

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