National’s credibility continues to decline

Under National the economy is continuing to stagnate, with the Government’s deficit (obegal) $169 million higher than forecast, says Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Parker.

“National is seriously mismanaging the economy. Their Government’s deficit is over 6% higher than forecast, undermining their credibility as managers of the economy.

“National is breaking promise after promise. Their promise of 170,000 new jobs is way off target and their promise to reduce the numbers of Kiwis leaving for Australia has long been broken.

“Now John Key is backtracking on his promise to return the Government books to surplus by 2014/15. He says the Government only needs to ‘get within cooee’ of surplus, despite making getting the books back into the black a centrepiece of the election campaign.

“He’s backtracking because the economy is performing so poorly - unemployment is over 7%, manufacturing outside the primary sector is in trouble and New Zealand exports are down. Our external deficit is getting worse as exports drop – an 11 per cent drop in value over the last year.

“The economy’s troubles mean the Government collected $292 million less tax than expected - a sure sign that businesses aren’t growing and working Kiwis aren’t earning. That’s why the country is in deficit and it’s not just the Government deficit. New Zealand’s external deficit this year is the second worst in the developed world, after Greece, and next year is projected to be the worst.

“National has no adequate plan to grow the economy. Its central economic hope – to sell our state assets – was never going to grow jobs or exports. And even that ploy is deep trouble.

“National’s economy is stagnating. We see the evidence every day. Unemployment is at a 13-year high. Businesses are being sold overseas or shut down, jobs are being outsourced or cut, and a thousand Kiwis are leaving for Australia every week.

“Just about the only thing that’s growing in this country is the Christchurch rebuild, on the back of tragedy and insurance inflows that even this Government can’t claim credit for,” says David Parker.
ends

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