17 July 2002

Cullen's Dodgy Accounting Practices

"Michael Cullen must have employed the same dodgy accounting practices he used to hide almost $1 billion of extra spending in his Budget when trying to cost National's policies," says National's economic spokesman David Carter.

Mr Carter says in a desperate effort to try divert attention away from Labour's lack of an economic programme, Dr Cullen has released highly inflated estimates of National's policies by pumping up every figure he can find.

"Half clever tricks like this do nothing for Labour's already discredited economic management. Once again, the only thing economic about Dr Cullen's claims is the truth.

"National has a proud fiscal record and it is only because of our sound economic management that has built the financial base to enable Labour to pursue many of its policies.

"Our policies have been costed within very strict fiscal parameters, with the big difference between National and Labour's numbers is that we do not have to fund the fundamentally-flawed Cullen Fund.

"National has allowed $800 million new spending each year, with a total of $4.8 billion of new spending over our first term. WE have clearly signalled our spending priorities within that total.

"Our tax and spending polices have been costed on the basis of leaving operating balances of between 1.0 and 1.5% each year of our first term.

"National is committed to a comprehensive review of the government's investment programme to ensure these line up with our priority of higher growth. We will also investigate the extent to which the PPP's can be used to supplement the cash requirements of the investment programme," Mr Carter says.

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