The Government's "modest" tax cuts for New Zealanders are "crumbs" compared to the "slash and burn" cuts to public services, Green co-leader Marama Davidson says.
Labour and the Greens have been quick to hit back at the tax bracket changes which mean average-income households getting a cut of $102 per fortnight.
The parties are highlighting the climate, public sector job cuts and the Government's "savings" drive. Meanwhile, amid its nationwide protest aimed at the coalition, Te Pāti Māori MPs are not sitting in Parliament while the Budget is being tabled.
In Parliament, Labour leader Chris Hipkins said he wanted to "speak to the Kiwis who feel forgotten and left behind" as he slammed the coalition's first budget.
"In New Zealand, we work together for the good of the many — not the few. This Budget does not deliver in that spirit," he said in a media release.
"For months, New Zealand families were promised $250 extra a week — in reality, this is going to a tiny percentage of the population.
"While the minimum wage worker gets their 30 cents an hour in tax cuts, their hopes of buying a home has been ripped away. Saving money has become harder with the loss of half-price public transport, free prescriptions, and the first home grant.
"The funding allocated for health barely keeps the lights on.
"This Budget has delivered piddly capital investment in the important areas of health and education, meaning fewer new classrooms and hospital beds."
Hipkins added: "New Zealanders were promised cost of living help, tax cuts, less inflation, better healthcare and money to the frontlines of the workforce.
How much fares will rise depends on where you live. (Source: 1News)
"Instead we see the return of smoking, more gambling, no new cancer drugs, and no new initiatives for Māori. This is a budget of broken promises."
He slammed the tax cuts as being inflationary and "fiscally irresponsible".
"There are tough choices to be made. This is a difficult point in the economic cycle. But this Government's choices are making things tougher for the majority of hard-working New Zealanders. They are taking New Zealand backwards."
Meanwhile, Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson criticised a lack of climate focus, adding that the tax changes would be "crumbs" in comparison to other cuts made.
"Poverty is a political choice and instead of bringing it to an end, the coalition has prioritised lining the pockets of the wealthy," she said in a media release.
"The 'modest' tax cuts offered to our communities are crumbs in the context of the slash-and-burn to critical public services and do nothing meaningful to shift the dial on our shameful rates of child poverty in Aotearoa.
"This Budget will leave people out in the cold and leave our planet to burn as emissions rise and our window of opportunity to combat climate change closes.
"Aotearoa can do better. We deserve better. We have enough to go around to ensure everyone has food to eat alongside a warm place to call home."
Green co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said the Government was fuelling inequality with its tax brackets and again renewed its calls for a wealth tax.
"When the Government says their aim is growth, we must ask the question of who pays for that growth, and who pockets the gains," she said in a media release.
"They've handed $2.9 billion in tax cuts to landlords, which our Reserve Bank says will only serve to make housing more expensive and arguably removes the incentive for new builds."
She added: "It's cake for those at the top, crumbs for almost everyone else — and nothing at all for those struggling to get by on benefits, which the Government has already cut planned increases for, knowing they'll push between 7000-13,000 kids into poverty.
"Somehow even worse than that, these choices increase the cost of housing, helping funnel any pretence of these trickle-down tax cuts into the pockets of those who are enabled to gamble on housing."
In contrast, Finance Minister Nicola Willis said tax cuts would come as a relief for Kiwis.
"For the first time in 14 years, hard-working New Zealanders will get to keep more of their own money through our Government's tax relief," she told Parliament.
In her speech, the Finance Minister said the Government's job is to help economic recovery, not hinder it. (Source: 1News)
"We are shifting resources out of the back office of government into the front line. We are investing in healthcare, schools and police.
"We are putting New Zealanders’ money where it can make the biggest difference."
She said: "I have occasionally heard people say that tax relief only benefits the well-off.
"That is not true of this tax package. Our changes to the in-work tax credit, and introduction of FamilyBoost, tilt the benefits of the tax package to low-to-middle income working families with children."
Te Pati Māori's Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was not surprised by what was announced today.
"We went into this with no hope, we knew it was going to be a privileged Budget, and that's what we got."
They were energised by the turn-out to the nationwide hīkoi, however.
"The revolution has started in terms of ourselves, organising ourselves in the rangatiratanga space," Rawiri Waititi said.
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