Both she and her husband live with an extensive range of physical disabilities, and had hoped Finance Minister Grant Robertson might have some assistance for them in yesterday’s announcement.
However, funding for disability support services remained static, although overall there was a substantial boost to health funding.
"If there was ever a clearer description of the ostracism of people with disabilities in the community it is in this Budget," Ms Cowley said.
"... we are the ones most vulnerable, often without access to any form of life analogous with wellbeing and yet we have been excluded and denied existence in these Budget reports."
All main benefits were increased in the Budget, a boost to some disabled beneficiaries receiving supported living payments, but potentially not enough.
Ms Cowley said the disabled were vulnerable to illness and loss of work, and there was often zero income support for those who medically needed it most often.
The needs of the disabled had been given scant consideration in the Covid-19 response plans, and there was often not even accessible transport to vaccination and other government sites, she said.
"Our lives have no value to them.
"When the Government actually recognises lives of people with disabilities as having value and allows rights to live with equal opportunities in New Zealand, I will wholeheartedly reconsider my opinion."
