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National | Budget

"It's a bad budget for Māori" - Simon Bridges

National Leader calls the Governments' budget for 2018 an 'epic fail'. Simon Bridges told Kawekōrero he believes it's a bad budget for Māori.

"There's nothing there in terms of Whānau Ora, there's halving of the funding in Vote Māori, for the specific projects, you got to say it's an epic fail," says Bridges.

The Opposition Leader acknowledges the contribution of the Māori Party that consisted of only two members in parliament in Nationals' last term as governor.

"They achieved more in terms of funding at least than 13 Māori MPs within the Labour Party," says Bridges.

Talking to Kawekōrero he criticised the new budget saying there's more taxation, more borrowing of money that will hurt all New Zealanders. He claims even though Labour has boasted more Māori seats in parliament, National's track record is better - not just in National's last term but over the last 20-30 years. The previous tax package he outlines was targeted towards low to middle income New Zealanders, therefore targeting Māori who he outlines as meatworkers, mechanics, and midwives.

"There's really only two Māori that have done well out of this budget and that's Winston Peters and Shane Jones," he says.