Grant Robertson

MP for Wellington Central
Finance Spokesperson

MEDIA STATEMENT

16 May 2016

Key plucks $3b out of thin air - reckless and irresponsible

John Key refuses to give up on his dream of tax cuts to the wealthy, despite being shot down by Bill English, and is resorting to plucking numbers out of thin air, says Labour’s Finance spokesperson Grant Robertson.

“On radio this morning John Key said he hoped for tax cuts of $3b in 2018, just days after Bill English said record population growth meant the Government had to increase spending on services to catch up.

“The Prime Minister is being reckless and irresponsible. When people are being forced to live in cars and garages, when older New Zealanders are living in pain because they cannot get operations, we are a long way from being able to afford these kinds of election bribes

“The Treasury says there may be a $1b surplus in 2018. A $3b tax cut puts the Government $2b back in the red. John Key’s musings that surpluses will increase are nothing more than that.

“Mr Key seems to think there needs to be just one year of money for health and education and then back to tax cuts.

“After seven years of cuts and underfunding and now 60,000 more people coming into the country a year, he’s completely out of touch if he thinks that year’s funding boost will restore services back to health and education.

“The Government ran on 2014 promising tax cuts next year. They’ve broken that promise. Now John Key wants to try the same trick again. New Zealanders aren’t that stupid,” says Grant Robertson.

ends

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