KEY POINTS:
Families with total earnings up to the average household income of $75,000 a year are expected to get some relief in today's Budget. Three couples in that income range tell what they're hoping for. They will give their verdicts on Dr Cullen's efforts tomorrow.
THE O'NEILLS
With a newborn baby, Lauren and Shaun O'Neill's top Budget priority is not tax cuts. It's healthcare.
"For families less fortunate in receiving money, I think health is the priority," said Mrs O'Neill, 29.
"I know health has been cut, but I think a National Health Service system like Australia and England would be really beneficial. That way everyone's covered regardless."
Mrs O'Neill worked as a mortgage administrator before stopping to give birth to son Paora three months ago.
Mr O'Neill, 28, works long hours as a concreter - only five hours on slow days but 12 to 17 hours on busy days, earning $60,000 to $65,000 a year.
The couple have bought an apartment in downtown Auckland but they rent it out to cover most of the mortgage, which they have to top up by $30 a week. Instead, they live in a rented house in Pt Chevalier, paying $460 a week.
Mrs O'Neill took paid parental leave when the baby came, but got only $330 a week for 14 weeks, which has just ended.
"I just got the standard Government maternity pay because I was with my employer more than six months," she said.
"I had been there eight months. If I had been there one month longer it would have been 80 per cent of my wage.
"I've always worked, I've never been on the dole, I've always paid my taxes, but the Government may or may not help you at the end of the day. It's really unfair.
"So a better maternity scheme is something I'd like to see."
The couple have cut back on "luxury foods" and buy only cheaper cuts of meat, and Mrs O'Neill expects to have to go back to work when Paora is 6 months old.
"I'll be having to go back to work a lot sooner than my year that I wanted to take off."
THE JOHANSSONS
Adolf and Martha Johansson are realists. They don't expect the Budget to make up totally for higher living costs, but they do expect something.
"Any relief would be nice," said Mrs Johansson, 42, a fulltime mother of four children aged from 1 to 13.
Mr Johansson, 38, drives 46km a day between the family's Lynfield home and his work as distribution co-ordinator for the Mormon Church on the North Shore.
Mrs Johansson drives the family's other car about 100km a week to get the children to school, piano and drum lessons and weekend activities.
Their petrol bill alone is now about $200 a week, which means it has gone up about $40 based on a 25 per cent rise in petrol prices in the past year.
Their income has been steady at around $60,000, but food prices, rates and school "donations" have all risen, and son James has just started college with demands for extras for camps and other activities "every week". Mr Johansson reckons the family are "slightly worse off" than a year ago.
"I wouldn't say we are worse off by a great margin. We've had to tighten up."
Mrs Johansson said the Working for Families package had already made a difference.
"I wait for that thing to drop into that account, then I know we're going to eat this week," she said.
How might the Budget help further?
"I know it's a redistribution of the cake," Mr Johansson said. "I hope that redistribution is based on either families or organisations that support families, such as hospitals and schools."
In particular, they would like to get rid of student loans.
"In a few years this fellow will be in tertiary education," said Mrs Johansson, indicating James. "I don't want him to leave with a mortgage."
THE MORRISES
David and Maud Morris are looking for help for their young adult children in today's Budget.
"Because of our age we have only a small mortgage. Our biggest concern is our children's future," said Mr Morris, 61.
"It's just about impossible for a young couple to get a house in Auckland."
Mr Morris and Mrs Morris, 58, took up jobs as night custodians at Auckland City Hospital's Ronald McDonald House 18 months ago. Mrs Morris also works as a bank administrator, giving the couple a total income of about $50,000 a year.
They have handed over their Lynfield house to two of their children in their twenties - a son married with a baby who is almost 1, and a daughter and her husband.
The two couples share the four-bedroom house because neither can yet afford to buy.
"Our children are getting subsidised rental and I don't think they save any money at all," Mr Morris said. "They both have good jobs - one is in a bank and one is in a security company, making quite good wages, but they don't have much left at the end of each week."
When their three children were growing up, Mrs Morris was able to stay at home with them for 17 years.
"Today there is no way for a mother to stay at home."
David and Maud Morris would like Dr Cullen to introduce "income splitting" - allowing a couple to split their joint income equally. They have worked out that this would cut their son's taxes by $5000 a year.
They also want more help for first-home buyers, and are not impressed by the "shared equity" scheme that will lend up to 30 per cent of the value of a house with a maximum house value of $305,000 in Auckland.
"Even in Otara they are more than that," said Mr Morris, "so that's not going to help very many people."
