NEW ZEALAND – Raising the cost of cigarettes to $30 a packet by 2020 is a kick in the guts for working people, New Zealand First leader Winston Peters says.

Peters said middle New Zealand got nothing from this year’s budget, and making cigarettes more expensive would hit them the most.

The cost of a packet of cigarettes – currently $20 – is to go up by 10 percent every year for the next four years.

Peters said tobacco was a legal product and a lot of children would not be fed because of the price rise.

But Prime Minister John Key was making no apology for it, and said smoking was the most predictable killer in New Zealand.

The government’s 2016 Budget contained more than $1.5 billion in new spending, and earmarked $300 million for Auckland housing, and $652 million for social services.

Auckland Action Against Poverty spokeswoman Sue Bradford said with thousands of people homeless in Auckland alone, Bill English’s budget was an insult to their desperate and immediate needs.

Labour leader Andrew Little said it was “not very ambitious”.

It failed to tackle core problems of child poverty, unemployment and housing affordability, he said.

Little said people would continue living in cars and garages, and people in Auckland still would not be able to buy their first home.

“This is a very pedestrian budget. The classic plaster on a compound fracture. We’ve got bigger problems that needed more attention.”

Key said New Zealanders had high expectations the budget would deliver on the core areas of health, education, security and economic growth. He said there were no question it did that.

Key said it was a continuation of eight years of a National-led government.

Green Party co-leader Metiria Turei was not impressed and said the budget lacked vision.

She said nothing had been done to address the most important issues facing the country.

Turei said the government had reduced spending in the budget to make it easier for it to announce tax cuts in election year.

United Future leader Peter Dunne said while the budget was not the most exciting, it was very profound.

“There’s some big changes in the way in which the government is approaching its whole task of social spending. I think the social investment strategy is not an immediate eye catcher now, but I think over time it will be seen to be one of the big significant shifts.”

Youth lobby group Generation Zero labelled the Budget the “Band-Aid Budget”.

“The housing policies announced in the Budget are band-aids more designed to ease criticism of the government than to solve the housing crisis. We need leadership from central government on housing. Today they showed us very little” said Leroy Beckett, the group’s Auckland director.

The headline announcements of $258 million in social housing and $100 million for surplus Crown land purchases - are designed to ramp up supply, particularly in Auckland, and offer support to families with desperate housing needs.

“The investments in social housing are much needed,” Mr Beckett said.

“It’s an emergency response though, more based on public relations than a thought out plan for solving the housing crisis.

Beckett warned against thinking any single measure would end the crisis overnight.

“There is no silver bullet for the housing crisis. The Auckland Council need to play their part by passing the Unitary Plan and central government need to invest in infrastructure which allows more affordable housing to be built. Without both working together we will be gridlocked,” he said. - PNC