Associate Finance Minister Paul Swain says the opposition hasn't the policies or the ideas to deliver doubled economic growth – and history supports that.

The opposition leader has told the media she will challenge her party to "paint a picture" of how New Zealand "can hit (economic) growth rates of over 5 percent" in the next decade (from NZPA story 20 July)

"I think Mrs Shipley needs to check the facts before she starts her painting," Paul Swain said.

"From March 1990 to December 2000 the average growth rate for New Zealand was 2.5%.

"It will be some fancy finger painting for Mrs Shipley to convince New Zealanders she can change the habits of her political lifetime. I don't think she has the creative ability.

"To one audience she says she's going to cut taxes, to another audience she says she is going to spend more money.

"Her party doesn't know what it stands for - they have no policy, no ideas and no leadership.

"Anyone looking for a watercolour of what the National Party is about this weekend will find a lot of water and little colour," Paul Swain said.

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>