Woods MeganHon Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): Often you hear Governments stand up in the first piece of legislation in what will be a long haul of Budget urgency in terms of the debates that are there fizzing with what their Budget has provided. And we're hearing this about cost of living pressure relief for families. But it has not taken New Zealanders long to pull this apart to understand that the poorest New Zealanders are not getting that relief that the wealthiest New Zealanders are getting two times the relief of minimum wage workers.So when we have the Minister of Finance standing up in this House and claiming that they are the party of workers well I can tell you the party of workers does not take away cheap public transport for kids. It does not take away healthy school lunches. It does not put costs back on prescription charging. And it does not do things that it knowingly knows will raise rents and insurance—the very things the Reserve Bank have been telling New Zealanders is putting a pressure on their back pocket and the money they have.One of the important documents that accompanied the list of new initiatives—although that's reasonably thin in this Budget because there aren't that many—is a very interesting document called the Budget Economic and Fiscal Update (BEFU). And what the BEFU does is it does give that economic and fiscal update. This is Treasury's not the Government's forecast for the future.One of the things that I find concerning—and I think New Zealanders do too as they're counting their $2 and $4 a week tax cuts; it will send a chill down their spine—is that we know how these tax cuts are being paid for. They're being paid for by cuts to public spending and funding things like the reintroduction of interest deductibility. And what does the Treasury—the economic adviser to our Government—have to say? Well it says that the reintroduction of rental property interest deductibility for tax purposes and changes to the bright-line rules [are] all expected to have [an] … upward impact [on rents]. Rents are forecast to continue rising rapidly over the early years of projection". So this is the kind of things that New Zealanders can look forward to because of the choices that this Government has made in this Budget.This Budget is a Budget of broken promises. Nicola Willis when delivering her Budget started her speech talking about what she'd heard on the doorstep. I'm sure she also heard on the doorstep that people were expecting the $250 a fortnight that National went out and told them they were getting. And what are they getting? They're getting—Hon Kieran McAnulty: Bugger all.Hon Dr MEGAN WOODS: I cannot quote my colleague Kieran McAnulty but "not much" would be the paraphrase of what he said.But I think of superannuitants. When I have to go out and look them in the eye and talk about my $20 tax cut and know that for a single superannuitant that is $2.50 how can that be seen as anything that any Government could hold its head up about? It is not even as Chris Hipkins said enough to buy a packet of chewing gum. This is not how you address cost of living. These are tax cuts that are at the expense of core public services—the very things that these cuts will put pressure on in New Zealanders' household budgets and New Zealanders' wallets. This Budget will cost Kiwis more. This is not a Budget where the tax cuts are going to deliver the relief that they thought was coming their way. They are going to pay more for their health they are going to find that what is delivered in our schools is being cut. There is not a single cent in this Budget for supporting learning services. How are we going to ensure that those kids who we need to support the most to make sure they have educational attainment are supported?I will in many other contributions over the course of the next three or so days talk about the cuts to climate funding that account to billions and billions of dollars. So this Government not only is letting down New Zealanders today but it is letting down the next generation of New Zealanders too."