Vicky Freeman says she moved abroad because she wasn’t earning enough to pay rent in Auckland

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The model on the front of New Zealand’s much-hyped “wellbeing” budget has left New Zealand because the cost of living was too high.

New Zealander Vicky Freeman, an actor and model, appeared on the front of Thursday’s budget document , smiling and carrying her daughter on her back.

Freeman told the New Zealand Herald she wasn’t aware her image had been picked from stock images to grace this year’s budget, and the choice was ironic considering she and daughter Ruby-Jean, 9, have since relocated to Australia because they couldn’t afford to make ends meet in New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, which is in the midst of a housing crisis.

Jason Walls (@Jasonwalls92) The first look at the first Wellbeing Budget - the front cover is a stark contrast to that of previous budgets which were relatively plain. pic.twitter.com/qgpLSdwWQX

“A friend just messaged me and said: ‘You’re all over the news’. And I was like ‘what, what have I done, I’m not even there,’” Freeman told the New Zealand Herald.

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“We moved to Auckland to do the TV thing but I couldn’t pay the rent ... sometimes I would have to hire a sitter to look after my girl while I went and did some TV work and I was paying the sitter more than I was coming home with because I was passionate.”

“I didn’t do it a lot because it made me feel kinda stupid, paying a 15-year-old sitter more than what a single mum is making. It was crazy.”

Thursday’s budget was earmarked as a world-first by the Labour coalition government and revealed record-levels of investment in mental health, child wellbeing and programmes to prevent and tackle family violence.