Jan Tinetti Labour MP

At the heart of Budget 2023 is a cost of living package designed to ease the pressure on households.

I've been out and about making sure people in the Bay hear about this cost of living support and I wanted to share a bit more information here too.

Budget 2023 provides practical cost of living support across some of the core expenses facing Tauranga families, like childcare, healthcare, transport. Millions of people will pay less for these services as a result.

We're helping with health costs by removing prescription charges for medicines. Removing the $5 co-payment will mean about three million Kiwis will no longer have to worry about the costs of collecting their medication. This will make a real difference for households, particularly those who have multiple prescriptions to fill on a regular basis.

We're significantly reducing the cost of early childhood education for parents by extending 20 hours ECE to two-year-olds, adding to the existing three-to-five-year-olds. We're also extending our Healthy School Lunches programme, which delivers more than one million free lunches to students each week. For families with two children, it's estimated the scheme saves, on average, $60 per week.

To help with transport costs, we're providing free fares on buses, trains and ferries for children aged five to 12 and half-price discounts for all passengers aged 13-24 from July this year. Free fares for kids under 13 could see savings of $30 a week for whānau with two children.