National’s infrastructure investment about turn

Media Release – for immediate release

9 October 2008

National’s infrastructure investment about turn criticised

The New Zealand Contractors’ Federation has warned that the National Party’s scaling down of its planned infrastructure spend would curtail the benefits of any tax cuts.

Chief Executive Richard Michael said the Federation was disappointed that National had wound back its plans for a substantial boost in infrastructure spending if elected to government.

“Infrastructure is one of the building blocks of the economy,” said Mr Michael. “Having a ully functioning infrastructure is a prerequisite of a fully functioning economic system.

“By curtailing infrastructure spending you curtail the overall benefit that tax cuts might give.

“Obviously infrastructure is a big ticket item so it is an easy target but that does not mean that it is an appropriate area of expenditure to cut.”

Previously National had said that it would fund a $5 billion increase in spending on roads and broadband but this has been scaled back to $3.7 billion in the wake of Treasury predictions.

ENDS

© Scoop Media