Honestly, I don’t give a fuck what the budget is going to do for me. Sure, I’m living week to week. Yeah, I’m worried about losing my income (and therefore my home). But I’m warm, I have shoes and a winter coat, and I know I’m getting dinner tonight. Too many people in NZ can’t say the same, and way too many of those are kids. I want my taxes spent on people below the noodle-line, not tax cuts for selfish rich douchebags who don’t need them.
With unemployment expected to reach 9.8% by September thanks to our mate Covid, it’s likely a hell of a lot more people will find themselves struggling. Que our “once in a generation” budget. It’s going to invest in all of our people, not just the 1%. Boards full of old rich white guys won’t be getting big tax cuts, and you know what? I don’t feel bad for them, sitting there in their $1000 suits, with their several investment properties and shares. They aren’t going hungry, fuck them.
This budget is a budget of investment, of support and therefore, of spending. This budget is focused on the long term growth and success of our country and economy, but not at the expense of the front line workers who drive it. Finance Minister Grant Robertson said we should never **** “put the burden on people who can least afford it.” This budget will ensure that the long-standing struggles of at risk people- young people, kids growing up in poverty, people who are homeless people working their guts out and always two bad weeks away from financial ruin- don’t get worse. And it’s long overdue.
Some of the good shit for our most at risk groups:
- Extending the wage subsidy to protect jobs and support small businesses
- Free trades training to help retrain people who have lost their jobs
- Support for starving artists
- Creating jobs in housing, infrastructure, environmental support etc
- Support to make sure those jobs are decent well paid work that shows respect for the people working them, giving them some dignity
- Giving 200,000 more kids lunch in school
- Building 8,000 new state homes
- $80mill will be pumped into social services like food banks, community support groups and hardship grants
