A snap poll of voters taken immediately after the Budget found voters predominently thought it was “okay” and the vast bulk of voters are happy with the level of Government spending
The Taxpayers’ Union-Curia snap poll, released exclusively to the Herald, was taken between 7pm on Budget night, finishing at 2pm the next day, as Parliament rushed under urgency to pass Budget legislation. It found 8 per cent of voters thought the Budget was “very good”, followed by 20 per cent who thought it was just “good”. A further 48 per cent thought it was “okay”.
A further 17 per cent of voters thought it was “bad” and 7 per cent thought it was “very bad”.
The poll was a snap online poll with 500 responses, giving it a margin of error of 4 per cent, slightly higher than most other political polls.
It showed that 22 per cent of voters thought spending in the Budget was “too high”, while 21 per cent of voters thought it was “too low”, leaving a strong 56 per cent of voters saying it was “about right”.
When it came to measures for reducing the deficit, voters favoured using “higher economic growth”, which was supported by 87 per cent of voters, and more spending reductions with was supported by 65 per cent of voters.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, just 23 per cent of people favoured increasing taxes. The most popular new spending announcements in the poll were those in health, schools, and disability funding. The least popular were increases to the waste levy, film subsidies, and spending on climate change.
It came as the Government proudly touted the level of interest in its tax cuts with 300,000 people visiting the Treasury website to look at the size of their tax cuts as of Friday.
“The surge of visitors to our tax calculator shows that Kiwis want to know exactly how the Budget affects them, and how much better off they will be as a result of the savings we have made and the tax relief we are delivering,” Finance Minister Nicola Willis said.
“Around 1.9 million households will receive tax relief for the first time since 2010. That makes up 94 per cent of all households in New Zealand.”
Taxpayers’ Union Head of Campaigns, Callum Purves said the results showed “New Zealanders are very supportive of efforts to get Government spending back under control and reduce the tax burden on hard-working families”.
“Not only do Kiwis support the tax reductions set out in the Budget, but they want to see the coalition Government go further and faster. This poll shows that taxpayers want to see tougher action to reduce wasteful spending, get a grip on Government debt, and deliver significant tax relief,” he said.
Both Willis and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon made speeches today lauding their Budget and its $14.7 billion tax package.
Willis, speaking at an event hosted by ANZ in Wellington, said she had relished hearing from people who had celebrated the tax cuts, including a Pukekohe grower grateful to be able to give his staff more and the single mother who said it would help ease the high cost of living.
She described her Budget as “the clean-up job New Zealand needs” that “heralds a new era of careful Government spending”.
Willis continued to face questions on her Government’s decision not to fulfil National’s promise to fund 13 new cancer drugs with money in this year’s Budget. She said the policy was of a “very high priority” and signalled developments could be expected in the “next little bit”.
At a post-Budget breakfast in Auckland, Luxon said he was “incredibly proud” to have followed through on National’s tax cut plan it took to the election.
Acknowledging the tough economic circumstances in which his Budget was launched, Luxon said there were signs of improvement with inflation “coming down quite fast” and higher business confidence.
“I have to tell you, it will pass.”
At Parliament, the House had been in urgency from Thursday night as the Government rushed through several bills following the Budget, including the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill which gave effect to the tax cuts and was passed on Friday evening.
During the bill’s third and final reading, Revenue Minister Simon Watts said urgency was warranted given the financial pain people were suffering.
He described how inflation and wage growth had forced people into higher tax brackets, meaning they paid a greater share of tax.
“This is not fair Mr Speaker, they earned that money and they should be able to keep more of it.”
Watts acknowledged the complications caused by the tax changes being implemented after the start of the tax year on April 1, but again argued acting with haste was necessary.
“Every day we delay, people are slipping further and further back economically.”
Labour revenue spokeswoman Dr Deborah Russell said while the tax threshold changes would make a “bit of difference to some New Zealanders”, its detail contained “fishhooks, wrinkles and traps” that hadn’t been explained by Watts during the legislative process.
She cited the Government’s childcare rebate policy, criticising the “very clunky” system designed around it which involved families keeping receipts to send to IRD before getting their refunds.
Russell also expressed disappointment in the Government’s use of urgency, which had limited the time available to debate the legislation.
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick argued the tax cuts came at the cost of other programmes the Government had pulled funding from, including the cancer drug policy and the free school lunches initiative.
She also used her time to highlight the “fundamental unfairness of the tax system”, referencing last year’s IRD report on more than 300 high-wealth families to advocate for higher taxes on the wealthy.
Thomas Coughlan is Deputy Political Editor and covers politics from Parliament. He has worked for the Herald since 2021 and has worked in the press gallery since 2018.
Adam Pearse is a Political Reporter for the New Zealand Herald based in the gallery in Wellington.