Budget 2017 reaction: Andrew Little hits out at 'The One Dollar Bill Budget'

Tax reductions will only benefit low income earners by a $1 or less a week, Labour leader Andrew Little says - slamming the "one dollar bill Budget".

In his speech to Parliament, Little said the facts had dawned on National after nine years in Government and four months out from a general election.

"This National Government has suddenly discovered that wages are too low...too many people are squeezed into our big cities, schools are overcrowded...congestion is choking our cities. And they have done nothing about it."

Today's Budget was a chance to show they took those problems seriously, "and they muffed it".

Little said the changes meant some Kiwis would get $11 extra a week, but have $10 taken away.

"This is the dollar bill Budget. That's what it is...a single cleaner on a minimum wage will get just $1 a week extra. The big winners of this Budget are the top earners who take home most of the tax benefits."

On health, Little said District Health Boards would not have enough money to address mental health shortfalls, and the Government didn't even know where the spending would go: "This is a fudge".

Little said there was nothing of substance to address the country's most urgent issue - the shortage of housing, and criticised the 1.3 per cent school operation grants increase as totally inadequate.

"Labour is committed to fixing the housing crisis, clearing our roads of gridlock and fixing the $1.7 billion hole in health," Little said. "[This] is not a Budget for the future, it's a Budget for September 23."

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said the Budget was "willful, wanton, weak, woeful, wobbly" and National would lose the election "big time".

Voters in the provinces and elsewhere knew the Budget delivered nothing for them, Peters said, and the talk to surpluses and strong economic performance was a sham.

The Budget showed National's lack of vision and underlying philosophy, and the party's desire to "hang on" for three more years, Peters said.

"I have never seen so many sheep going to the slaughter, clapping away their way to it," Peters told National's backbench MPs, calling the Budget "the longest suicide note in history".

The NZ First leader told Parliament the housing crisis was National's legacy, and Chinese buyers were majorly active in the property market.

Peters' faced frequent heckling from National's benches during his speech, and often fired back, criticising Gerry Brownlee as a Foreign Minister "who doesn't know where Canada is".

Efforts to address poverty, mental health services and infrastructure are all in "disarray", Peters said, and voters knew it.

Act leader David Seymour said National is using Working for Families "to buy votes with other people's money".

"Paying people more money to have kids was never good policy. Now it's even worse, with stronger incentives for people to keep having children even when they're not in a strong financial position. It's an insult to the majority of parents who wait and save before having children. And, if God-forbid, you're childless, the Budget snubs you."

He said National had forsaken its roots by "championing" Labour's Working for Families.

Seymour said the tax changes were welcome, but were "overdue and underdone."

"The most any taxpayer will save is $20 a week. And it's ultimately more of a tax reset than a genuine tax cut." He said National should have cut the top tax rate of $70,000: " $70,000 used to be a big salary, but now it's not - especially if you're paying off a student loan or mortgage."

The tax relief was a tax cut for the wealthiest New Zealanders in disguise, Shaw said, with low income families getting less than $5 a week benefit, while those earning $127,000 or more getting $33 a week.

National had today shown it had truly given up on solving the housing crisis, Shaw said, and had only stop-gap, piecemeal measures for other serious problems like struggling transport infrastructure.

"After nine years of a National Government Aucklanders now spend as much time sitting in traffic as they do on vacation ... nine years is a long time to put your trust in a Government that is big on announcements and short on results."

Green Party co-leader James Shaw said the Budget gives with one hand and takes with the other - giving the biggest benefits to the wealthiest Kiwis.

"We've had nine years of National in government and there is a decent surplus and all we've seen today is more tinkering," Shaw said, saying the Budget wouldn't help those most in need and did nothing for the environment while increasing subsidies for polluters by $300 million.

"National couldn't just give - they had to take away as well. New Zealanders will be paying the social and financial cost of National's inaction for many, many years to come."

National had today shown it had truly given up on solving the housing crisis, Shaw said, and had only stop-gap, piecemeal measures.

"National is increasing Working for Families credits for some, but have increased the severity of the abatement rates - making it harder for people to improve their circumstances.

"There is also a tax cut for the rich in disguise. Those on the highest incomes will get the bulk of the benefit. Families on the highest incomes receive a tax cut of $33.22 while those in the bottom quintile get just five dollars a week. This is not what low and middle income earners need.

"With this Budget, National has once and for all given up on addressing the causes of the housing crisis. Instead it is committed to spending hundreds of millions of dollars on stop-gap, piecemeal measure that are a band-aid, rather than a cure. There is nothing in here to dampen housing speculation or rampant investment."