Shrug of shoulders from people who are paying

By JULIET ROWAN

Out in the bars of central Auckland, where the better-heeled relax after work, the lack of interest was palpable.

For every person who spoke of their support for the "Battler's Budget", there were others who talked about how professionals were undervalued in New Zealand.

These were not Cullen's battlers. They were the people who felt they were paying for them.

Property valuer Matt Taylor, 37, questioned the wisdom of ignoring high-income earners.

"Why aren't they giving the people who are productive tax breaks?" he said.

Sitting at the bar with a young employee recently graduated from university, he suggested that the Government would do better to help those who had made personal and financial investments "building up the knowledge economy".

He said axing interest on student loans until graduates had been working for several years, for example, would stimulate growth.

Gary Johnson, a 53-year-old engineer having a beer with a friend in the Occidental on Vulcan Lane, supported the increased benefits for low-income families.

"It's better for the country to have a bit more equality and distribution of income," he said.

Ian Campbell, a 39-year-old financial services contractor who recently returned from 14 years in London, said he would have liked to see money allocated to improving infrastructure.

Despite not being eligible to receive any of the increased spending on families, he said he was happy with the current tax rates so long as the money went to "people who want to get educated rather than to those on benefits who take advantage of the system".

A 35-year-old woman sipping a wine around the corner at Honey in O'Connell St said the Budget was the kind expected from a Government that did nothing to encourage professionals.

The woman, who works in the pharmaceutical industry, said the extra spending on health was pointless because most health professionals were leaving New Zealand to work overseas for better pay.

"There's no one to do the hip replacements. The Government has driven everyone away."