Finance

New Zealand is in the midst of a cost of living crisis. Rents are up, mortgage rates are on the rise, the cost of food is up, petrol is up - but wages aren't keeping up. The Government isn't listening and every day Kiwis are going backwards. In this document ACT puts forward practical ideas and solutions.

ACT’s Real Change Budget would dramatically simplify the tax system so that it once again rewards success.

ACT has released an aspirational Budget for the future, for rebuilding, increasing productivity and growth. It’s the opposite to Labour’s approach of taxing people they don’t like and giving handouts to others.

The cost of living is out of control and New Zealanders are feeling the pinch. Meanwhile, the Government is spending your money like it’s going out of fashion. Tax cuts are not just possible, but necessary. ACT’s fully-costed Real Change Budget shows how.

“Finance Minister Grant Robertson has effectively admitted that out-of-control government spending is to blame for sky high inflation”, says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Finance Minister Grant Robertson has shown he has no plan to reduce spending and takes no responsibility for the part he’s played in the cost of living crisis,” says ACT Leader and Finance spokesperson David Seymour.

“The Reserve Bank is in uncharted territory, moving to triple shots when it thought doubles would mellow out inflation, but the Government has refused to change a single aspect of its approach,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“A likely 75 per cent basis point increase in the OCR shows that the Reserve Bank has lost control of the situation, but astonishingly, they’re going to take three months off. They should schedule another meeting for early January, you can’t say the situation is critical then put it on autopilot for three months.

“The latest Household Expectations Survey from the Reserve Bank shows Kiwis expect inflation to bite even harder over the next year,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“We seek him here, we seek him there, but the bogeyman the Reserve Bank tamed in 2020 cannot be found in its newly released five-year review. Instead, there is only a pile of debt and inflation for Kiwis to deal with,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“The Government has finally had a good idea around financial policy – but two years is a ridiculous amount of time to wait,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Despite a term of poor leadership, poor focus and poor outcomes, Adrian Orr has somehow been reappointed for another term as Reserve Bank Governor,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Jacinda Ardern is quick to blame the banks for their record profits, conveniently forgetting about her government’s record tax take that has likely grown by twice the big four banks profits,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Jacinda Ardern is wrong when she says tax cuts can’t happen because they’d be inflationary, she just needs to stop her addiction to spending,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“With Fair Pay Agreements being voted through today and inflation through the roof, it’s no wonder Business Confidence is down again,” says ACT Leader and Finance spokesperson David Seymour.

“Kiwi battlers are continuing to pay the price of Labour’s economic mismanagement, with the past year seeing the biggest increase in prices at the checkout since the Global Financial Crisis,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Revenue Minister David Parker should publicly commit to accepting all of the Auditor-General’s findings in relation to the Government’s shambolic cost of living payment,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

"Only after a deluge of embarrassing news, where people all over the world got a Cost of Living Payment from taxpayers courtesy of Labour, has David Parker thought to ask the obvious question 'are you in New Zealand?' before giving out free money,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“New Zealand is well on the road to recession as consumer spending slumped in the second quarter of the year," says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“If shareholders wanted out of Kiwibank it should have been floated on the open market, instead the Government is making it taxpayers’ problem,” says ACT’s Leader and Finance spokesperson David Seymour.

“The Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) has strayed so far from its purpose that it’s now spending millions of taxpayers’ dollars on a new website amidst a cost of living crisis,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Less than an hour before Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr was due to be questioned at Select Committee he issued a 13 page mea culpa,” says ACT Leader and Finance spokesperson David Seymour.

“Today more pain has been heaped on Kiwis already struggling with a cost of living crisis, it could have been avoided if the Government had disciplined its spending,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Today’s Taxpayers’ Union Curia Poll shows that Kiwis are overtaxed and want real change in our tax system, they will be pleased to know that ACT is the party proposing exactly that,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Inflation is not going anywhere because it’s homegrown, literally in the case of the latest food price increases,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.