Nicola Willis has today agreed with NZCTU analysis that shows less than 0.2% of New Zealand households will receive the advertised $252 a fortnight rate claimed by National.
NZCTU President Richard Wagstaff also agreed with Willis, in her belief that the NZCTU must stand for working people.
“That is exactly why we won’t back anyone who wants to strip away Fair Pay Agreements from hundreds of thousands of New Zealand’s lowest paid workers.
“We won’t support anyone who wants to reintroduce 90-day trials – something the Treasury has shown doesn’t work and leads to insecurity and exploitation. We won’t support people who don’t support increases in the Minimum Wage”.
“We won’t support a tax plan that is balanced by taking $2 billion from 350,000 low-income New Zealanders on benefits. We won’t back a plan that relies on making thousands of public servants redundant and cutting essential public services. We won’t back a plan that takes $2 billion out of climate change action and puts it in the pockets of landlords.”
Wagstaff said he would love to see the National Party deliver policies and programmes that would genuinely support working people across New Zealand. “But their proposed policies for the government would instead make life harder for working people right across Aotearoa.”