"Alongside these measures [increases in education and health expenditure], the government will take new steps to assist, strengthen, and empower low and middle-income families in their efforts to achieve higher incomes and better quality of life. All families benefit as a result of those changes, but the largest gains are reserved for low and middle-income working families..."
— Bill Birch, Tax Reduction and Social Policy Programme, February 1996

"The government's Tax Reduction and Social Policy Programme is poor policy. It does not meet its stated objective of targeting assistance at low and middle-income families, and it systematically excludes beneficiaries. The clients of Christian Social Services agencies are being offered scant relief from the increase in poverty created by the 1991 benefit cuts. "
— Bonnie Robinson, Executive Officer, NZ Council of Christian Social Services.

"It is punitive. It says that those who are in work are worth more than those who are not."
— The Hon Dr Michael Cullen, Labour Finance spokesman

"It is the most socially divisive legislation put before parliament."
— Jim Anderton, leader of the Alliance

"The government's assumption that the Bill will improve the social and economic lot of New Zealanders is flawed. The encouragement of people to enter the workforce fails to recognise that some people cannot get a job for reasons beyond their control. After all, unemployment is expected to remain at 6-7% for a few years, and some cannot get a job because of location, sickness, or looking after a dependent person. In addition, some jobs are not giving people a living wage..."
— Barry Keane, Catholic Commission for Justice, Peace and Development

"The effects of this Bill will be to generally increase the gap between rich and poor (in employment), and between worker and beneficiary... "
— Ivan Sowry, in submission from the Auckland Unemployed Workers Rights Centre

"Beneficiaries and low-income single people will not gain as much as working families in the first instance. For these people, the real gain from the programme is the additional encouragement and assistance to improve their lot by increasing their participation in the labour force and upgrading their skills. This `hand up' into employment for those out of work, and into better incomes for those with jobs, is a key objective of the total programme."
— Bill Birch, Tax Reduction and Social Policy Programme, February 1996

"The government has decided that the present `surplus' is to be distributed to the community in the form of tax cuts rather than the reinstatement of public services in areas such as health and education. Given this decisions, the low income earners who have borne the brunt of the economic and social reforms of the past ten years should receive their fair share of that distribution. This should be regardless of whether or not they are in paid work."
— Kevin Hackwell, in submission from the Downtown Community Ministry