Labour releases its fiscal plan, promises pay rise for care and support workers
Labour has released its long-awaited fiscal plan saying every election promise is paid for, but it has not provided a cost for fully re-implementing pay equity legislation.
It does however promise an immediate pay rise to 65,000 care and support workers, costing $2.5 billion over four years, and Labour leader Chris Hipkins says there's "plenty of headroom" within the plan to pay for pay equity overall.
Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds says Labour will keep operating allowances - that is, new day-to-day spending - at the $2.4 billion set by the coalition government in Budget 2026.
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Labour's already announced capital commitments were:
- $200 million capital injection for the New Zealand Future Fund
- $420 million for the initial student loan write-off
- $200 million for hospitals
- $400 million for schools
- $2.9 billion for Kāinga Ora housing, spread over four years
- $7 million for Ratepayer Assistance Scheme (RAS) solar expenditure
Hipkins said most of the party's big election policies had been announced.
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Labour promised to reversed half of the first tranche of public sector cuts announced in the government's Budget, and fully reverse the second tranche.
The party is working on the assumption that the government is already halfway through that first tranche of cuts.
"In many cases the cuts have already been made, and we're not going to reverse cuts that have already been made," Hipkins said.
"The current government aren't releasing that information, so we've had to make some assumptions about that."
Hipkins said Labour would scrap the Ministry for Regulation, and the savings realised would largely be divvied up among other agencies.