Labour supports the Budget's lift to the accommodation supplement but the tax cuts are unfair and poorly targeted, finance spokesperson Grant Robertson says.
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Finance Minister Steven Joyce's Budget offered a $2 billion a year boost for Working for Families and the accommodation supplement, which helps beneficiaries and low-income working families
Mr Robertson said Labour "by and large" agreed with those changes, but the tax cuts - by raising the two lowest income tax thresholds - were irresponsible.
"Everyone recognises we're in the middle of a housing crisis and clearly we do have to do something to help people out with the increasing cost of rent," he told Morning Report's Susie Ferguson.
"The problem is we don't solve the housing crisis by increasing the accommodation supplement.
"We solve the housing crisis by building more affordable homes, by getting emergency housing in place for the homeless, by not selling off state houses but by building them."
Tax cuts were poorly focused spending, he said. "In 2018/19 there's nearly $1.9 billion in unfocused tax cuts and only $370m for Working for Families."
He said the party would oppose the Budget legislation because it opposed the vast majority of the spending in it.
Mr Robertson said Labour's families package would better target those in need.