ACT leader Don Brash says the Budget shows the Government continues to live in a fool's paradise.
The Government says its books will return to surplus by the 2014-15 fiscal year, through changes to Working for Families, KiwiSaver and interest-free student loans, as well as through savings in the public sector and the partial sale of four state-owned energy companies.
Dr Brash says the Government is planning to borrow $13,000 for every family in New Zealand over the next 12 months. Living standards are lower than they were in 2004, he says, but there's no plan to lift incomes.
The party's parliamentary leader, John Boscawen, says New Zealand has major social problems and intergenerational welfare dependency, and significant structural reform is needed.
"Cutting back spending programmes which recipients have come to enjoy would have required real political courage, which, like the last Labour government, this government seems to lack," he told Parliament.
Mr Boscawen says people will soon realise that the goodies the Government is handing out are charged to their children and grandchildren.
