ACT Leader Richard Prebble says Michael Cullen is trying to put out excuses even before getting anywhere near the Treasury benches

"In a press statement Dr Cullen has accurately predicted that New Zealand could be due for a credit downgrade if he ever took over. But he's trying to blame it on the present government.

"The Labour party has no practical ideas on how to reduce the country's trade imbalance. Airy fairy proposals to subsidise unnamed "knowledge industries' impress no-one.

"ACT says the most practical way and the quickest way to restore the balance of payments is to restore the bottom line profitability of farming and the primary sector.

"Of course Dr Cullen wants to do the opposite, with his talk of smashing our dependence on primary industry. On his recent trip to the West Coast he actually declared local industry to be surplus to requirements.

"It's within our governance to restore the profitability of farming because it's the government and local government taxes, regulations and red tape that are making farming unprofitable. Yet Dr Cullen proposes to increase the bureaucracy and increase farm losses, because he regards the whole primary sector as being surplus to requirements."

ENDS

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