The Government’s plan to impose a new tax on every worker and business in the country could not come at a worse time, Opposition Leader Christopher Luxon says.

“With prices growing twice as fast as wages, Kiwi families are worse off than they were 12 months ago under Labour.

“National has big concerns that Grant Robertson’s new unemployment insurance will make the cost of living crisis even worse. It’s a new tax, reducing incomes at a time when with high inflation businesses and workers can’t afford it

“Small businesses have been struggling just to keep the doors open over the last two years. Now, just when Kiwis deserve some relief, the Government wants to hit workers and businesses with a brand new tax to fund a new gold-plated unemployment benefit.

“Calling this new tax a ‘levy’ or a ‘contribution’ doesn’t disguise the fact that this will be yet more money flowing from hard-working New Zealanders and businesses to this big-spending Labour Government.

“This ‘Jobs Tax’ is a solution looking for a problem.

“New Zealand historically has very good labour market outcomes and a welfare system that, at least until Labour took office, did a good job of acting as a social safety net to help those who had fallen on hard times get back on their feet.

“But the Government wants to impose yet another centralised, bureaucratic welfare scheme on top of the one we already have.

“The Government should just call this what it is – a Jobs Tax. And then they should abandon it.”

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