Te Pāti Māori says it's disappointed with the government's Budget announcements today, but has claimed some small wins.
Co-leader Debbie Ngarewa-Packer told Newshub Nation that on the whole, it hasn't delivered for Māori.
"Definitely not. [Although] we've got some wins," she said.
Ngarewa-Packer was hoping to see GST removed from kai, or evening out the two percent of Kiwis who own 50 percent of the nation's wealth.
"This hasn't been the distribution of wealth that we were after - a wealth tax, a capital gains tax - we needed to see real pressure to once-and-for-all break the entrenched poverty that we see Aotearoa suffering from."
Ngarewa-Packer said kaupapa Māori such as Whānau Ora, Matariki, and Te Matatini are important, but so are the perennial inequities facing Māori, which the government hasn't tackled.
"Have they been able to address the increasing poverty, stop homelessness, or address the fact that we have 60,000 homeless and 190,000 empty homes?"
Despite that, one kaupapa Māori win - according to Ngarewa-Packer - was a substantial increase to funding for Te Matatini, which gets a $34m boost over two years.
"We're absolutely stoked. There has been massive advocates in Te Ao Māori to get to this point," she said.
"But those are things that should've happened a long time ago."
Te Pāti Māori also wanted to see "taxes on ghost houses, so our whānau can afford to be able to live in their own whenua."
On the other side of the political spectrum, ACT Party leader David Seymour called the government's 2023 budget a "blowout."
"I don't think anyone predicted next year's deficit would be the government spending $7.5b more than it takes in," he told Newshub Nation.
Seymour told Newshub Nation Government deficit spending adds to inflation pressures.
"It's a bit like putting the heater on with the windows open."
He's happy to see free medicine prescriptions, free daycare extended for two-year-olds, as well as free public transport for rangatahi under 25.
"But if you do those things for the cost of living, without some fiscal discipline of your own, you just contribute to inflation," he added.
He argued the Treasury/Te Tai Ōhanga had forecast a "rosy picture" that the economy was heading in the right direction.
"They'll try and blame Covid-19 - sorry that's officially over. They'll blame Vladimir Puytin; a very bad man but oil prices are below their pre-war level. They'll try and blame the floods but that's not where their money's going," Seymour said.
"They're running out of excuses and money."
Seymour says the budget is just redistribution and spending.
"Almost nothing in there is about producing new wealth."
The government had announced $55.2m will go towards research fellowships, and PhD student training.
Meanwhile, there will be a 20 percent rebate for game development studios, and other innovation-boosting projects in the STEM sector like a technology and innovation park in Lower Hutt.
"It's their symbolic fig leaf for growing the economy," said Seymour.
Greens co-leader James Shaw told Newshub Nation the budget has a few good measures but missed the mark.
"We do think that it could go further and faster, when it comes to both inequality and the climate crisis."
National's deputy leader Nicola Willis tooted the same horn as Seymour.
"This is Labour's blowout budget, with a blowout of increased spending, increased deficits, and more debt."
Labour's finance minister Grant Robertson disagreed.
"I'd call it responsible, and I'd call it a targeted investment in easing cost-of-living pressures."
"The investment in early childhood education is the biggest investment that we have seen in our country."
