National’s Greatest Misses 2023-4 – Labour Party

Handed $2.9 billion in tax cuts to landlords

Gave a $216 million tax break to a tobacco company

Repealed our world-leading smokefree legislation

Cancelled the iReX ferries then failed to come up with any alternative, costing the country millions in cancellation fees and rising costs

Broke their promise to rebuild Dunedin hospital in full, and scaled back other hospital upgrades

Placed a hiring freeze on the health workforce

Promised to fund cancer drugs, then didn’t follow through in Budget 2024

Cut the First Home Grant, making it harder for people to get on the housing ladder

Paused the Enabling Good Lives programme, removing choice and control from disabled people

Brought back the failed experiment of charter schools, moving public money into private hands with no oversight

Put a gun lobbyist in charge of reviewing gun laws brought in after March 15

Scrapped universal free prescriptions

Set a target of 500 more police officers but is unlikely to deliver

Broke their promise to fund state houses past 2025

Cut flexible funding for the disabled community without consultation

Binned half-price public transport

Cut three billion dollars from climate funds

Failed to provide any certainty to the construction sector, resulting in 12,000 fewer jobs

Failed to notice a $6 billion hole in Simeon Brown’s transport budget

Sidelined environmental laws in favour of private profit for destructive industries through their Fast-Track Approvals Bill

Pushed families out of emergency housing to save money, with zero thought of where they would go

Hiked up vehicle registration fees

Promised to bring down rates through water services reform, but rates are on track to be higher than ever

Allowed police to withdraw from family harm callouts, despite protests from victim support advocates

Lumped a massive 12c petrol tax hike on Kiwis in 2027 after promising they wouldn’t

Mandated the removal of safe speeds around schools for most of the day

Underfunded the health system, forcing after-hours clinics to close, GPs to put up their fees, and grad nurses to look for work overseas

Resurrected boot camps against all good evidence, and they immediately failed

Promised they wouldn’t cut frontline services, then did

Failed to deliver more than half the electric car chargers needed to meet their target

Said they wouldn’t borrow for tax cuts, then borrowed $12 billion for tax cuts

Cut disability support funding for programmes during school hours

Restricted access to residential care homes

Allowed ACT’s Treaty Principles Bill to go through to second reading despite not supporting it, triggering a record-breaking hīkoi

Prompted record numbers of Kiwis to move overseas (one every 6.5 minutes)

Shrank free and healthy school lunches down to a snack

Changed child poverty targets to make them easier to achieve

Cancelled school classrooms and other building projects

Cancelled rural school bus routes forcing rural parents to add hours to their daily commutes

Claimed they would prioritise the parent category visa, then delayed it

Removed fair pay agreements

Fought against Labour’s ‘app tax’ then introduced it themselves

Cut the pay equity taskforce, claiming it was ‘no longer needed’

Cut thousands of public sector jobs

Fumbled the economy so badly there are 23,000 more people on Jobseeker support and unemployment is at a four-year high

Shifted Disability Support Services into to MSD against the disabled community’s wishes

Scrapped the minimum wage top-up for disabled workers

Scrapped free ECE for two-year-olds before it came into effect. It would have saved parents up to $133.20 per week per child.

Reinstated 90-day no cause dismissals for new hires

Is repealing the ban on new offshore oil and gas exploration