The National Party says the Government is placing "bandaid upon bandaid" on the cost of living crisis rather than having a plan to address inflation.
It comes after the Government announced on Sunday an extension to the cuts to fuel tax, road user charges, and public transport. It said these would be extended until January 31, 2023, in response to the continued cost of living crisis.
Fuel excise tax is currently cut by 25 cents a litre and road user charges are slashed by equivalent levels. There are also half-price public transport fares. These reductions were first announced in March.
Finance Minister Grant Robertson said on Sunday that the cut to fuel excise reduces the cost of filling up a 40 litre tank of petrol by over $11, and for a 60 litre tank, over $17. Half-price public transport sees an average person who pays two $5 fares a day save $25 a week.
"There's no easy fix for the cost of living, but we're taking a range of actions to ease the pressure on families," he said.
"In the case of today's announcement we know that the rising price of fuel has a direct effect on inflation, and making these changes is a targeted approach to a root cause of the cost of living pressure being faced by Kiwi households."
But the National Party's finance spokesperson, Nicola Willis, criticised the Government's move to extend the cost of living measures.
She said while New Zealanders will welcome not having to say goodbye to the 25 cent per litre fuel tax discount, it is "cynical" of the Government to continue reacting to the cost of living crisis "on the fly".
"Where's the plan? What New Zealanders have a right to expect is a plan from the Government to address the underlying drivers of inflation, not just put bandaid upon bandaid," she said.
Willis said the Government should be doing more to address the cost of living, such as stopping its "addiction to spending".
"What we know for New Zealanders tomorrow is while the price of petrol may still be the same, food prices will keep going up and other costs across the economy will keep going up, and this Government doesn't have a plan to address it," she added.
ACT Party leader David Seymour was also critical of the Government's move, saying it hasn't considered the implications of its extension to the reduction scheme.
"Just as Labour had not considered that discounted kilometres bought under the Road User Charge Scheme do not have to be used in the period they're bought, it also had not considered the chaos that would ensue when people queue up to avoid the 25c rise in petrol prices," Seymour said.
"Labour's policy also creates havoc with public transport providers. Auckland Transport, for example, had promoters in malls selling discounts designed to smooth the eventual return to full-price fares. That marketing effort is now worthless, and it will have to plan for the return to full price fares on January 31, unless the Government kicks the can down the road again then."
He said what the Government should've done is introduce the "durable" solution of returning the proceeds of the Emissions Trading Scheme to citizens - something that is ACT policy. Seymour said this policy would give the average family a $749 dividend without reducing a cent from any public service.
"ACT's policy has the advantage of being sustainable, while maintaining the incentive to emit less carbon. A family that used its carbon tax refund for greener solutions would effectively be subsidised by those who buy petrol," he said.
"Labour's policy has effectively cancelled out the effect of ETS charges (approximately 18c) on a litre of petrol, and then some."
The Green Party, on the other hand, is supportive of the extension of half-price transport, but would rather the Government made it free for good.
The party's transport spokesperson Julie Anne Genter said both the climate and inequality crises can be responded to together by prioritising investment in transport that reduces carbon emissions.
"Subsiding fossil fuels by making petrol and diesel a little cheaper for half a year doesn't make sense in 2022, when we need to make the transition to cleaner transport," she said.
"There are better ways to help families struggling short term with the high cost of living. Direct payments would mean people could choose how to spend it, including on petrol - but would still enable incentives to shift to green options for those who have them."
Genter said there's also a need for investment in green transport in the medium and long term, such as ordering the trains needed for regional rail services in the lower North Island.
"The Green Party calls on the Government to enable funding for this essential work so people can have more options to get around that don't rely on fossil fuels," she said.
"Future-proofing our transport system to make it less reliant on oil will both reduce the pain of future oil price shocks and reduce dangerous, climate-heating pollution."
She added it's the second time the Government has extended the short-term subsidy for fuel when they could have invested in public transport and regional rail.
