Unions slam Prime Minister’s comment they ‘don’t seem to care about working New Zealanders’

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has suggested if two major unions cared about workers, they would support the Government’s planned tax cuts. Luxon has come under fire from the two organisations he took aim at.

The Public Service Association and the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions have both been critical of the Government’s approach to the public service. Agencies are finding cost-savings of between 6.5 and 7.5 per cent on average, leading to job cut proposals across a number of ministries.

Responding to whether or not he should sit down with the Public Service Association to speak about the mass job cuts expected across public service agencies, Luxon appeared to hold back laughter.

“If the PSA, or the CTU for that matter, actually cared about low- and middle-income workers, they would’ve come out in support of our tax relief plans that we’ve been talking about for the last two years,” the PM said.

“[Unions] don’t seem to care about working New Zealanders anymore,” Luxon told reporters on his way into Question Time.

Council of Trade Unions president Richard Wagstaff said the comments from the Prime Minister were “ridiculous and totally out of touch”.

Wagstaff added the proposed tax cuts come at a cost for working people, “having already led to job losses and insecurity for more than 1000 public service workers”.

“If the Prime Minister really cared about working people, he wouldn’t be getting rid of their jobs, he wouldn’t have cut the minimum wage in real terms, and he wouldn’t have scrapped Fair Pay Agreements, which would have lifted the pay and conditions of hundreds of thousands of low-income workers, such as cleaners, security guards, bus drivers and supermarket workers.”

PSA national secretary Duane Leo told the Herald the Public Service Association stands firm in “defending their jobs and all public and community services”.

“These are services that are being sacrificed for the Government’s tax cuts and that should worry all New Zealanders,” Leo said, adding that the situation for public service workers and the services they provide was an “unprecedented attack”.

The Prime Minister did not see a need for himself or Public Service Minister Nicola Willis to sit down with the PSA regarding the cost-cutting proposals.

“We’re very clear about our role as an employer. We make sure that we have a very good, functioning relationship between employer[s] and unions,” Luxon said.

Azaria Howell is a Wellington-based multimedia reporter with an eye across the region. She joined NZME in 2022 and has a keen interest in city council decisions, public service agency reform and transport.