“Today’s Taxpayers Union poll reported in The Post reveals that even Labour’s own supporters think government services have got worse during their time in office,” says ACT leader David Seymour.

“The poll shows that 70% of voters think the health system has ‘got worse’ since 2020 under Labour, 57% said the same for education system, and 64% said the criminal justice system has also ‘got worse’.

“Most damning for the government is the verdict from their own voters. 56% of Labour voters think the health system got worse under the party they voted for, 48% of Labour voters think the criminal justice system got worse and 31% think the education system got worse – with only 18% of Labour voters thinking it has got better.

“Labour has been in charge for six years. There is no possible excuse for increasing spending by $56 billion dollars and getting the results we are seeing. Labour is solely responsible for the decline in public services and people are rightly angry.

“New Zealanders are angry that Labour's economic mismanagement has created the cost-of-living crisis, that its soft on crime policies have created a culture of lawlessness, and that co-governance has divided New Zealanders by race in public services like health.

“Labour’s COVID-19 policies kept the country shut down longer than necessary and caused significant economic harm; Labour’s immigration policy created a massive shortage of skilled labour, especially in health and education; Labour’s $56 billion a year increase in government spending has driven inflation and the cost of living crisis; Labour’s determination to cut the number of prisoners even as violent crime rises has led to a culture of lawlessness; Labour’s campaign to get people out of their cars and into public transport; Labour’s determination to insert ideology into the curriculum rather than passing on knowledge to the next generation.

ACT’s alternative budget lays out in detail how ACT will address these issues and turn New Zealand around. ACT in government will immediately cut a billion dollars of wasteful spending; ACT will make changes to immigration settings and the rules around foreign medical specialists working in New Zealand to address skills shortages. ACT will tackle lawlessness by bringing back Three Strikes, abolishing costly cultural reports which are just used by criminals to get lighter sentences, and building more prisons.

Public services need to focus on core business. ACT will be releasing a policy on better public services in the coming days which will restore that focus.

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