Jacinda Ardern slammed the National Party today for its "political point scoring" move in leaking Budget 2019 details last week.
The Prime Minister told TVNZ1's Breakfast that the move didn't serve anyone. She also said Finance Minister Grant Robertson won't apologise for "misleading" New Zealand in talking about criminal allegations behind the leak, because he was relying on advise provided.
"I think in the public's eye, all of this looks like political point scoring when ultimately the focus should always have been on the Budget, and if we wanted to clear up exactly what happened in this scenario the Opposition were always the ones best placed to tell us what had happened," she said. "They could have done that 48 hours sooner.
"All I think people hear is political point scoring. I don't think this issue has served anyone particularly well."
1 NEWS political editor Jessica Mutch McKay explains.
Ms Ardern said she did not want to comment further on what happened until the Treasury has properly looked into what went on.
"It shouldn't take particularly long, I wouldn't imagine, before that picture is painted," she said. "Then we'll have a bit more transparency about exactly what happened."
The Government went ahead with releasing it's "wellbeing Budget" on Thursday, after the leak of some information from the document on Tuesday.
The National Party leader said the information was so easy to access, a grandmother could have done it.
Ms Ardern says the key transformational points in the Budget were on lifting between 50,000 and 70,000 children out of poverty, and work in the mental health sector.
Work in mental health will include supporting men - because of high suicide rates among men - and supporting school-aged Kiwis with managing anxiety.
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