Budget 2026: Marama Davidson urges Kiwis to boo Luxon over ‘heinous’ public sector cuts
To follow the latest Budget coverage, click here for our live blog.
Kiwis should “feel free to boo” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon over planned public sector cuts, says Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson.
Speaking to the Herald after the unveiling of Budget 2026, Davidson said the cuts to sectors – including sport, women, environment, conservation, disabilities and Pacific people – would cause “further intergenerational harm and intergenerational cost”.
“I don’t want to see any sports team welcome this Prime Minister to their game ever again,” an impassioned Davidson said in response to the announcement.
“They should feel free to boo him off the pitch, boo him off the paddock, boo him off the netball court, because there have been cuts to sport, such a good thing for our communities and people.
“When you have got an economic approach that sees you underinvesting in public services, the things that our people need and rely on to be well, then you are actually creating further intergenerational harm and intergenerational cost.”
Over the next three years, most government ministries and departments will be required to cut their budgets by 12%.
Oranga Tamariki, law and order, health, education and defence and intelligence agencies are exempt.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said Budget 2026 “includes savings from government agencies that will be delivered through increases in productivity and greater efficiency”.
She said $424 million of savings would come from “reprioritising” front-line services and a further $2 billion of savings from “future baseline reductions”.
Davidson criticised the “flawed” plan yesterday afternoon.
“I do not accept an economic model that has to leave people unemployed, that has to choose to leave children and their whānau in poverty, that has to desecrate and trash our environment,” she said.
“That is a flawed economic model, and Nicola Willis does not count the underinvestment in public services. That impacts on people’s everyday lives, their ability in schools and healthcare, and all of the things that communities need.
“It is a flawed economic model if you’re talking about budgets and surplus and debt in isolation of the real impacts on people’s everyday lives.
“This Budget once again has chosen to leave children and their whānau struggling in material hardship without food, without kai, without adequate housing. That is a political decision; it is a heinous political decision. I’m not surprised, but I am deeply disappointed.”
Do you have questions about the Budget? Ask our experts – business editor at large Liam Dann, senior political correspondent Audrey Young and Wellington business editor Jenée Tibshraeny – in a Herald Premium online Q&A here at nzherald.co.nz at 9.30am, Friday, May 29.