Rt Hon Winston Peters
New Zealand First Leader
24 May 2012

‘Back to the Future’ Budget Puts Nats in Time Warp – Peters

New Zealand First has described the Budget as a leap ‘Back to the Future’ with a mean spirited and nasty approach.

Rt Hon Winston Peters says the government is caught in a time warp, selling assets, making more public service cuts, ignoring exporters and manufacturers and heaping more misery on struggling New Zealanders.

“The government ignores the tax free status of the very rich and has resorted to taxing children for the pittance they earn for pocket money.

“This is the work of a fiscal fiend!

Mr Peters says the Budget neglects the fundamental requirements for manufacturers and exporters to prosper and develop the economy.

“It will see New Zealand slide backwards at an alarming rate as jobs disappear along with our manufacturing and exporting base.

“Instead of providing a brighter future as promised, this Budget has doomed the next generation of Kiwi workers to join the 1000-plus a week packing their bags for Australia.

“Those that remain will join thousands of other job seekers scratching around looking for poorly paid work in a ‘burger-flipping’, ‘supermarket shelf stacking’ economy.

“The debts and deficits-focused Budget does nothing to address the growing gap between the rich and poor.”

Mr Peters says the outcome of National’s policies in the 1990s was disaster and the outcome will be no different this time.

ENDS

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