National won’t help most Kiwi families get ahead

Increasing the rate of GST and providing tax cuts for the wealthiest New Zealanders won’t help most Kiwi families get ahead, says Labour Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe.

“In fact, the reverse is true,” David Cunliffe said. “National is clearly becoming the champion of the few at the expense of the many.”

“I find it almost impossible to believe that Finance Minister Bill English can stand up in Parliament with a straight face and accuse Labour of mortgaging the future of Kiwi families by saddling our children with a legacy of deficits and debt.

“The hypocrisy of National’s position is becoming clearer by the day, and Mr English has now resorted twice in a few days to hypocritical attacks on Labour to try to obscure National’s cynical and deliberate attacks on Kiwi families,” David Cunliffe said.

“If anyone is placing the future of our families at risk, it is Mr English and National, and they’re doing it in spades.

“They have suspended contributions to the New Zealand Super Fund. They’ve given tax breaks to polluters to continue polluting. They’ve cut investment in research and development.

“And now they plan to charge all those on the lowest incomes more in GST so that they can fund tax cuts for their rich mates.

“And they plan to re-direct $1.8 billion of what they call lower quality government spending over the next four years, without bothering to tell us what falls into that category,” David Cunliffe said.

“New Zealanders should be very worried because National has already made savage cuts to home support for the elderly, to services for the seriously ill and dying, to adult education, to training incentive allowances to help women get off the DPB, and to a wide range of NGO-provided community-based services.

“National’s cynical policies are placing at risk the future of our families and our children.”

ENDS

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