Christopher Luxon says New Zealand is starting to see “encouraging signs” in the economy, including with food prices and inflation.

The Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance Nicola Willis addressed the media at the weekly post-Cabinet press conference ahead of Government’s tax cuts later this week.

As announced in the May Budget, income tax cuts will come into force from Wednesday.

Luxon says the tax relief package would see 94% of all households “better off” and Kiwis would start to see that in their bank accounts.

Willis is providing a preview of what to expect when the tax cuts come into force.

“Cost of living relief is on its way,” she said.

Willis said the Government was providing much-needed cost-of-living relief. She encouraged New Zealanders to check out the tax calculator online.

On whether interest rates should be cut before the end of the year, Willis said that was an independent decision for the Governor of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand.

The cuts would provide savings of up to $40 a fortnight for many workers, although the lowest income earners and superannuitants would only benefit by $9

Families with children will also benefit from changes to the Working for Families in-work tax credit and new childcare rebates in a Budget, which was estimated to benefit about 1.9m households by $60 a fortnight on average, and households with children by $78 on average. In total, 3.5 million New Zealanders would get a tax cut.

Labour's Dr Ayesha Verrall has tried to put pressure on Health Minister Shane Reti over the Health NZ restructure. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Meanwhile, Labour’s health spokeswoman Dr Ayesha Verrall continued her efforts to probe the Government’s approach to health, calling for Health NZ’s monthly financial reports to be released.

“Last week the Government began to claim that Health New Zealand faced a deficit in March, but official financial statements published two weeks ago said otherwise,” she said.

“The deficit figures are being used to justify spending cuts, and the public deserves full information, not just political spin.

“The Government hasn’t got its story straight. The Prime Minister said he knew of overspends in October, Minster Reti said he knew in late March. We need to see the books to know which version is true.”

On Health NZ, Willis said the advice she received was the amount of funding given was “appropriate”.

Luxon said he knew there was “work to do” with the health workforce but they had made “tremendous” progress.

“We are continuing to hire frontline workers.”

The overspends Verrall referenced were outlined by Luxon and Reti last week as they announced the restructure of Health NZ’s board following two resignations and others who opted against serving another term.

The pair claimed “14 layers of management” had been a primary contributor to monthly overspends of about $130m a month, with the organisation on track for a $1.4b deficit by the end of the year.

Adam Pearse is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team, based at Parliament. He has worked for NZME since 2018, covering sport and health for the Northern Advocate in Whangārei before moving to the NZ Herald in Auckland, covering Covid-19 and crime.