“Nurses will be better off under ACT’s Alternative Budget than they would under the pay increases proposed by the Government,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“A nurse on the middle pay band would get an additional $2200 from ACT’s proposed tax cuts. That’s a 3.36 percent pay increase.

“Under Labour’s proposed pay increases, the Government is offering just $906, a 1.38 percent increase.

“Jacinda Ardern and her Government has its priorities all wrong. It’s spending $675 million on a cycle bridge in Auckland while nurses go on strike around the country.

“It’s spending $2 billion on Jobseeker Support, billions of dollars on Fees Fee and is subsidising companies such as Amazon to make films here. 

“ACT’s Alternative Budget shows another way. 

“We can create the conditions for new opportunities and we can grow out of the challenges our country faces. But first we need to have the right priorities, which includes helping middle New Zealand, the battlers who are being squeezed from every direction.”