{"id":13511,"date":"2026-05-28T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=13511"},"modified":"2026-05-28T16:37:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T04:37:03","slug":"opposition-parties-say-budget-2026-leaves-new-zealanders-fending-for-themselves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/?p=13511","title":{"rendered":"Opposition Parties Say Budget 2026 Leaves New Zealanders \u201cFending for Themselves\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>By Colin Ambler and Sarah McMillan\/cvnznews.com<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Labour and the Green Party have delivered a blistering joint wave of criticism at Budget 2026, accusing the Government of failing its final chance to ease pressure on households and instead deepening hardship for those already struggling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said the Budget \u201cfails the basic test of making life better\u201d, arguing that New Zealanders are facing rising costs, shrinking services and worsening job losses under Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Finance Minister Nicola Willis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cForty thousand more people are unemployed since Luxon took office,\u201d Edmonds said, adding that cuts to the building sector have cost 20,000 construction jobs and that up to 9,000 public sector roles are now being axed. \u201cThese are the people who process superannuation, handle benefit applications and keep our borders safe. Cuts don\u2019t grow the economy, they shrink it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Edmonds said families are being forced to choose between \u201cexpensive food and expensive fuel\u201d, with energy bills up 20 percent and doctor visits approaching $100 in some regions. She also criticised the Government for raising rents for 84,000 social housing households by an average of $31 a week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Green Party echoed Labour\u2019s concerns, saying the Budget leaves New Zealanders \u201cfending for themselves\u201d with no long\u2011term vision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEvery day, New Zealanders feel the reality that Luxon\u2019s Government has no hope, no plan, no ambition,\u201d said Green co\u2011leader Chl\u00f6e Swarbrick. She said the Budget \u201creads like an ad for renewable energy\u201d while the Government continues to \u201chook the economy to fossil fuel vulnerability\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Co\u2011leader Marama Davidson said the Budget asks the most from those who can least afford it. \u201cStudents, renters, social housing tenants and wh\u0101nau on low incomes are being told to wear the cost of this Government\u2019s economic mess,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both parties say the November election will give New Zealanders a clear choice about the country\u2019s direction.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Colin Ambler and Sarah McMillan\/cvnznews.com Labour and the Green Party have delivered a blistering joint wave of criticism at Budget 2026, accusing the Government of failing its final chance to ease pressure on households and instead deepening hardship for those already struggling. Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said the Budget \u201cfails the basic test<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13512,"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":[1154,1041,305,113],"coauthors":[446,380],"class_list":{"0":"post-13511","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-green-party","10":"tag-labour","11":"tag-new-zealand"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Barbara-Edmonds-and-Chloe.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13511","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=13511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13513,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13511\/revisions\/13513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13511"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvnznews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=13511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}