That’s not always fair on Labour, especially given the hard yakka Michael Cullen put into paying down Crown debt in the Clark Government. The Budget didn’t do anything to reassure Kiwis that Labour fully understands what real life in 2023 is like. It looks like making struggling voters wait months for help just so Labour can win the election. The saving grace for Labour is that they haven’t been blamed for the Budget hiking mortgage rates. But in reality it means nothing to struggling families because he pushed up the OCR anyway, which pushed up mortgage rates.

Source: New Zealand Herald May 27, 2023 21:33 UTC