Nats break health and education spending promises

National has outstanding promises of almost $1 billion to be spent on health, education and agriculture from the Future Investment Fund but has only $536 million left in the fund, says Labour’s Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson.

“John Key and Bill English promised to spend $1 billion on health, $1 billion on schools and $400 million on irrigation from the proceeds of asset sales. Budget figures show that they don’t have that money and they will fall short by hundreds of millions of dollars.

“To meet their promises, there is still $364 million left to be spent on schools, $316 million on health and $280 million on irrigation. With the Budget showing just $536 million left in the fund there is a shortfall of $424 million.

“Health and education budgets are under pressure. There are communities that need schools and hospitals to be re-built that are relying on that money – losing it will be a blow to them and those that rely on those services.

“National made specific promises about what the proceeds of asset sales would be used to build. They have written a cheque that they cannot cash. This is yet another broken promise from this Budget,” Grant Robertson says.

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