Its commitments to social spending would not jeopardise Labour's intention to maintain a surplus, they emphasised. The government has obliged big business by promising rising surpluses through to the next election in 2002. The trade union leaders rushed to endorse the budget, confirming their role as key props of the coalition. These measures include small increases in spending on education, health and housing. In all cases, the increases fall far short of what is required to address the acute levels of social and economic inequality now embedded deep within the social structure.
Student debt is a case in point.
As a result, tertiary education has become increasingly the preserve of the wealthy. The budget offers a 2.3 percent funding increase to institutions in return for a freeze on fee increases. Health Minister Annette King has already written to hospital administrators saying that doctors and nurses should not be offered any significant pay rises in the current year. Medical Association chairwoman Pippa MacKay said the funding provided nothing to help medical students facing massive fees and debts, to end the shortage of junior doctors in hospitals or to stop the exodus overseas of locally-trained doctors. Labour and the Alliance have done nothing to restore the vicious cuts to unemployment benefits and welfare that were implemented by the National Party when it came into office in 1991.