KEY POINTS:
National's tax cuts were being pushed through Parliament last night with National and Labour clashing over who benefits and who misses out.
Labour says National will penalise low-income families who will get nothing if they earn less than $45,000.
National defended the design of its three-year package, saying families had had big increases over the past few years with Working for Families.
"Families with children have had big increases over the last two or three years," said Finance Minister Bill English. "People without children have had nothing."
The legislation was due to pass either late last night or today.
The package will deliver $18 a week from April 1 to someone on the average wage.
Mr English said no one would be worse off under his package compared with the tax they were now paying.
Labour says some will be worse off - but that is compared with its own tax package had it won the election.
One of the features of the National package is the new independent-earner allowance of $10 a week for non-beneficiaries without children earning between $24,000 and $44,000.
It is estimated 630,000 people will be eligible for the payment, which can be paid into an earner's pay packet with a new tax code.
The tax cuts will be delivered through adjustments to both the rate and thresholds at which rates apply.
Labour leader Phil Goff said families who struggled to feed their children and get them to school received little or nothing while those who could send their children to high-decile schools would gets hundreds of dollars.
"Where's the fairness there? There isn't any."
The unfairness was compounded by the fact that those who would end up paying more tax under National than they would under Labour's plans would be the people most vulnerable to losing their jobs, who would also be denied protection against dismissal in National 90-day "fire-at-will bill".
As the bill was debated under urgency yesterday, the Maori Party came in for special criticism from Mr Goff, who said the tax law would damage the economic interests of most people in Maori electorates.
