‘Do nothing’ English on back foot

‘Do nothing’ English on back foot

A defensive Finance Minister Bill English today blamed ancient history, the Australian minerals boom and every other imagined difficulty he could ‘lay hands on’ to try to explain away the slow, difficult and patchy economic recovery under National, says Labour Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe.

David Cunliffe said that Bill English, in his speech to the New Zealand Council for Infrastructure Development, admitted the Government would have no measurable milestones even by 2014 by which New Zealanders could judge its progress in terms of closing the income gap with Australia by 2015.

“It has never been clearer that this government has no plan,” David Cunliffe said. “The economy is struggling and unemployment is rising.

“Bill English is forced into more and more desperate revisionism, with his claim that National inherited a bad economic situation ignoring Labour’s achievements such as the world’s lowest unemployment rate, New Zealand’s longest post-war economic expansion, halving gross government debt and cutting net debt to zero at the same time as pre-funding superannuation.”

David Cunliffe said: “Every time Bill English repeats his mantra, it sounds thinner and more ridiculous. He’s been there almost two years now, and he’s still complaining.

“His claim that our overseas debt has grown from $100 billion in 2000 to head toward $250 billion by 2014 is misleading as the majority of the debt is private sector.

“His response has been to try to loosen overseas investment rules and to cut government spending, thus prolonging the recession. There are already 20,000 more unemployed under National, and National’s making it easier for foreigners to buy our best assets at fire sale prices,” David Cunliffe said.

“In his extremely defensive speech, a forlorn Bill English admitted only 1.9 percent economic growth in the past year, far short of John Key’s so-called ‘aggressive’ recovery.

“He claimed progress in the trade surplus, but omitted to say Treasury predicts the current account deficit to blow out to more than 7 percent over the next four years from the current 2.4 percent. He has no plan to address structural causes of the deficit.

“Dispiritedly he described the economic rebalancing as ‘quite slow’, and the recovery as ‘quite different to others’ and ‘patchy at times’. Every time he opens his mouth he seems to find weaker words to describe a worsening situation, with unemployment up, business confidence falling for three months, and the commodity sector, upon which National pinned all its hopes, now declining,” David Cunliffe said..

“Bill English confirmed New Zealand is slipping further behind in National’s commitment to catch up with Australia by 2025, and will have no milestones in place by 2011 or even 2014. It beggars belief that a government with no ideas and no courage should expect Kiwis to support them for three elections.

“When he lamented that the Australian economy had grown 11.5 percent in four years to March 2010, while New Zealand’s had grown just 2 percent, he omitted to say the gap opened up on his watch because Australia stimulated its economy in the recession while National gave tax cuts to the wealthy.”

David Cunliffe said the only new idea in Bill English’s speech today was to require crown entities to include a compulsory PPP option for infrastructure developments over $25 million.

“He described this idea as unglamourous, but it’s actually dangerous, letting private sector foxes loose in every crown entity chicken coop, without providing proper training for officials or central control. It’s a recipe for disaster and will see taxpayer assets pillaged the way they were in the 1990s.”

Ends