Matt McCarten: Lean pickings for workers as employers get cream

COMMENT

Despite the rhetoric, this is an employers' Budget - not a workers' Budget.

Labour is keeping employers comfortable for the next three years. New business subsidies. No new taxes. No redistribution of wealth.

All its major platforms are subsidies to employers. The new childcare allowance goes directly to childcare providers.

The increase in the accommodation supplement will go to landlords. I predict that within six months they will hike rents due to pressure on the housing market. The investment in economic development is basically corporate welfare.

So what's in it for the workers? Seventy-five per cent of our members are under the age of 25. There is nothing in this Budget for young workers.

Do they get the in work payment? No - not unless they are a parent.

Do they still have to pay to learn skills their employers profit from? Yes.

Is there any spending on infrastructure to alleviate the cost of them driving to work and parking in Auckland? No.

I would have liked to have seen the minimum wage increased to $12. That would ensure that every young worker gets a share of the growth in the economy that Labour boasted about. That would mean fewer workers would have to take two or three jobs to try to make ends meet.

Working families with children will be better off, that's for sure. Beneficiaries will only be a little better off but only if they have children.

The message is go forth and get a low-paid job or a kid, or a low-paid job and a kid.

What else is there in this Budget that Labour said would give low and middle income earners something back from a growing economy? Despite predictions of huge surpluses for the foreseeable future, precious little. The bulk goes into the Super fund, which of course is shipped offshore.

* Matt McCarten is a union organiser and leader of the Alliance Party