{"id":13508,"date":"2026-05-28T16:20:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T04:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=13508"},"modified":"2026-05-28T16:15:51","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T04:15:51","slug":"labour-says-budget-2026-fails-final-test-as-costs-rise-and-jobs-disappear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=13508","title":{"rendered":"Labour Says Budget 2026 \u201cFails Final Test\u201d as Costs Rise and Jobs Disappear"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>by Colin Ambler\/cvnznews.com<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Labour has slammed the Government\u2019s 2026 Budget as a failure of leadership and a missed final chance to make life better for New Zealanders, accusing Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis of delivering \u201cmore cuts, more pain and higher costs\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said the country is going backwards under National, pointing to <strong>40,000 more people unemployed<\/strong> since the Government took office and what she calls \u201cdeep and damaging cuts\u201d across the public sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cChristopher Luxon and Nicola Willis promised to make life better for New Zealanders, but all they have delivered is more cuts, more pain and higher costs,\u201d Edmonds said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said the Government\u2019s decisions have already cost <strong>20,000 construction jobs<\/strong>, with up to <strong>9,000 more public sector roles<\/strong> now being axed \u2014 including staff who process superannuation payments, handle benefit applications and support border operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not just the families that feel the pain when those jobs go, it\u2019s local economies too. Cuts don\u2019t grow the economy, they shrink it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Edmonds argued the Budget offers no meaningful relief for households facing rising prices. She highlighted families choosing between \u201cexpensive food and expensive fuel\u201d, rising rates and insurance bills, and energy costs up 20 percent. Some New Zealanders, she said, are dipping into retirement savings just to stay afloat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Labour also criticised the Government for <strong>raising rents for 84,000 social housing households<\/strong> by an average of $31 a week, calling it a direct hit on the most vulnerable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThey say their choices will grow the economy, but under their watch unemployment has grown and economic growth has stalled,\u201d Edmonds said. \u201cFood banks are strained, and more New Zealanders are leaving the country altogether.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She said Labour would focus on \u201cyour job, your health, your home\u201d, promising free doctor\u2019s visits and an investment fund for Kiwi businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThis Budget was the Government\u2019s last chance to help those doing it toughest, and they have failed,\u201d Edmonds said. \u201cThis November, New Zealanders have a choice too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Colin Ambler\/cvnznews.com Labour has slammed the Government\u2019s 2026 Budget as a failure of leadership and a missed final chance to make life better for New Zealanders, accusing Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis of delivering \u201cmore cuts, more pain and higher costs\u201d. Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said the country is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[1154,305,113],"coauthors":[446],"class_list":{"0":"post-13508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-labour","10":"tag-new-zealand"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Barbara_Edmonds_and_Nicola_Willis_jpg.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13508"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13510,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13508\/revisions\/13510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13508"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=13508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}