“ACT is today launching the ‘Ease the Squeeze’ campaign to show how New Zealand can tackle the cost of living crisis,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Later this morning inflation figures will be released and they will show that the Government isn’t doing enough to Ease the Squeeze on Kiwi households, while earlier this week stats showed that food price inflation is at its worst level since 1989.

“ACT first called the cost of living crisis in December 2021. In the 17 months since then we’ve proposed idea after idea to ease the squeeze on Kiwi households, many of them through our Real Change Alternative Budget and our Cost of Living Crisis policy document.

“Too many Kiwi families are struggling just to keep their heads above water. They can see what the problems are, but the Government is so disconnected from the realities of working New Zealanders it feels hopeless.

“ACT will Ease the Squeeze and take the pain out of household budgets:

• We need to end wasteful government spending, for good. ACT will cut the waste in Wellington by $16.3 billion over two years, easing inflation and interest rates
• You work hard for your income, we’ll work just as hard to protect it. ACT will give back $9.3 billion in tax cuts over two years to the people who earned that money. For example, a nurse with one child earning $70,000 would receive around $2,300 in tax relief under ACT’s plan
• The growth needed to lift incomes is strangled by too much regulation and red tape. ACT will get rid of it, whether it’s RMA regulations making it too hard to use land, productivity-sapping workplace relations laws making it impossible to employ staff, or banking laws like the CCCFA that make it too hard to get finance.

“Labour thinks the Government is better at spending your money than you are. That’s wrong. In tough times, it’s about being smart with money – getting it where it’s needed.

“The challenges New Zealand faces can be addressed. But in order to do that there needs to be a strong economy built around creating conditions for prosperity, giving people the opportunity to get ahead.

“ACT will help Kiwis make ends meet by making sure they keep more of their hard earned money while cutting waste and unnecessary red tape.”

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