'Sinking lid' will pay for National's tax cuts

"John Key misleads the public when he says National will not cut one teaching or nursing job to pay for their grossly unfair tax cuts," said CTU president, Ross Wilson. "National obviously intend to operate a sinking lid in the state sector," he said. "A failure to increase spending in line with inflation and population growth and a refusal to replace workers when they leave amounts to real cuts."

"They will borrow and slash government spending and will certainly save further money by attacking wages and conditions in an approach to industrial relations policies that is a re-run of their 1990s onslaught on workers," said Ross Wilson.

"The tax cuts themselves are an inflationary gift to those on high incomes, giving $92 a week to those on $100,000 and $9.60 a week to those on $30,000.

"Workers will suffer further as rising interest rates push up the cost of their mortgages," Ross Wilson concluded.