Millions of people will be pocketing a little more of their wages from the end of July, as part the coalition's Budget tax relief package.
The government will change income tax thresholds and tax credit extensions from the end of July, at a cost of $2.6 billion a year.
Nearly two million households will get an average of $30 each week, while households with children will get an average of $39 each week.
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said in Thursday's Budget statement to the House that tax relief was long overdue.
"This Budget is for everyday people getting on with their lives - the mums and dads rushing their kids to kōhanga, working hard, waiting in traffic and watching the petrol light flash again."
Most voters RNZ spoke to in Northland and Christchurch were pleased to hear they would be pocketing a little extra cash in a few months' time.
Read more on Budget 2024:
- National unveils Budget 2024, keeps tax cut promises
- What the Budget means for you, in charts
- The Budget winners and losers
- Budget 2024 at a glance: What you need to know
"I think anything that puts more money back into New Zealand families' pockets is a good thing," one woman said.
"Every little bit helps," another woman said.
"I see it was targeted at the right people," one man said.
Another woman said it would have a "positive impact".
"I've got a child in daycare so all those costs add up."
"It's nice to know I can get an extra cup of coffee per week as an old age pensioner," another man said.
Willis has challenged the opposition to match the coalition's tax relief package.
"Who in this House in their right mind in a cost of living crisis would oppose tax reduction for working people?" she said.
"There is a party in this House that once called itself a party of the worker, is will that party oppose working people being able to keep more of their own money?"
Nearly two million households will get an average of $30 a week. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who has argued the Budget takes New Zealand backwards, has made no such commitments.
"They're not responsible at this point in the economic cycle; borrowing $12 billion to fund $10 billion worth of tax cuts isn't a responsible thing to do right now."
Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said New Zealanders would not feel tax relief for long if other costs, like housing, kept going up.
"While they may be looking at the tax cuts that the government has put on the table, they should also be looking at the government decisions which are going to increase the cost of living.
"And to that effect I think we could reframe that cost of living to a cost of greed crisis."
Te Pāti Māori had a Budget day of its own on Thursday, organising large rallies throughout the country and promising to establish its own Māori Parliament.
Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer was disappointed but not surprised the coalition had little targeted funding for Māori, bar Te Matatini and kōhanga reo property maintenance.
"We went into this with absolutely no hope. We knew it was going to be a privileged Budget and that's what we got."
The government's books would be back in surplus 2027/28, but in the meantime spending was going to be tight, with operating allowances pared back to just under $2.5 billion.
That was less than National's pre-election fiscal plan and could reflect the fact that there were two other parties at the decision-making table.