Media statement
Thursday, November 19, 2009

Goff talks gobbledygook on monetary policy

Labour Party leader Phil Goff's reasons for the party withdrawing from the bipartisan consensus over the Reserve Bank policy targets and instruments are gobbledygook, says the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern).

"Goff apparently wants lower interest rates, a lower and more stable exchange rate, and a low inflation rate but suggests it's ok for inflation to go higher than the current 1-3 per cent target," said EMA's chief executive Alasdair Thompson.

"We have no idea what on earth that means.

"Achieving all that at once would be like having cake and eating it too.

"The thing lacking in today's speech is any prescription for achieving these conflicting outcomes.

"Goff would do far better promoting more responsible fiscal policy than hinting he has a silver bullet for monetary policy."

ENDS

Gordon Campbell: On John Key’s Agenda For The Nation

There seemed to be three main components to John Key’s speech :

a) tax cuts largely paid for by a hike in GST
b) mining in national parks and on conservation land, while building more roads.
c) giving firms easier access to the r&d from Crown Research Institutes, so that business can continue to get the taxpayer to pick up the tab for the research that keeps them competitive.

After all, corporate welfare is always such a blessed thing – its only social welfare that corrodes enterprise and ambition. More>>