Hi John,

Today I called on Christopher Luxon to release the National Party’s fiscal plan as soon as possible, following new analysis that shows a massive $1.5 billion blowout in the cost of his signature tax policy.

New Zealanders deserve to know what services National plan to cut to fund their increasingly expensive tax cuts.

National need to find at least $8.2 billion for their tax cuts plus $3.5 billion for their tax cuts to landlords. That’s $2.9 billion in cuts each year to fund these policies.

We know National will cut free prescriptions and bring back the $5 charge for medicines. But their tax cuts cost far more than that. Luxon needs to set out what else he will cut to pay for them like teachers, nurses, and police.

You can’t trust National with their policy costings. Last election there was a $4 billion gap in their economic plan and it’s looking like their sums aren’t adding up again this year.

In 2017 Labour released our independently costed fiscal plan after the Budget and prior to Treasury’s pre-election economic update. That’s the upfront way to do it and National have all the information they need from the Budget to follow that approach.

Even Judith Collins was more upfront with people in 2020, releasing the first cut of National’s economic plan in July, three months before the election.

But instead, Luxon is planning to keep people in the dark up until the last minute when the economic update is released so they can hide their cuts as long as possible.

If there was ever a time for National to be honest with Kiwis about their costings, this is it. We’ve seen before what goes on the chopping block when National decides to cut taxes for the wealthiest New Zealanders. We’ve seen before what happens under a National Government that believes in austerity.

The cuts that National makes have real-life consequences for Kiwi families and kids. That is what is at stake this election. With your financial support, we can protect against the Coalition of Cuts and continue our work to rebuild and improve critical public services New Zealanders rely on, like health and education.

Thanks,

Grant