Hon Steven Joyce
National Party Associate Finance spokesman

18 August 2014

Labour-Greens combined spending promises pass $28bn

Less than five weeks out from the election, the Labour-Greens set of combined spending promises for the upcoming election has now hit a whopping $28.1 billion over four years, National’s Associate Finance spokesperson Steven Joyce says.

“The Labour Party's new spending commitments hit $17.9 billion over four years last week, and with the extra welfare money announced yesterday, the Greens' extra commitments have now reached $10.2 billion over four years,” Mr Joyce says.

“It's now even more apparent that the big spenders on the Left are flat out thinking of new ways of spending money that the country doesn't have.

“Labour and the Greens will, of course, both tell you it’s all fully costed and so on. What they mean is they'd raise taxes and set up a number of new taxes, and if all that fails, borrow a lot more money to meet their commitments.

“Labour will also tell you they haven't bought into the Greens’ announcements yet. However that flies in the face of the reality that any Labour-led government would have the Greens holding the whip hand – and that means the Greens big-ticket spending pledges in areas like transport and welfare benefit increases.

“Labour now needs to front up and say which of the Greens promises, if any, they don't support.”

Mr Joyce says Labour and the Greens are completely out of touch with fiscal reality in this election.

“They propose, if elected, to go back immediately to their big spending ways by placing a massive additional burden on Kiwi taxpayers. They haven't learnt a thing from their six years in opposition,” Mr Joyce says.

“New Zealand is now heading in the right direction with growing economic momentum. We are now one of the fastest growing economies in the OECD, and we need to lock in that faster growth to further lift New Zealanders' standard of living.

“The Labour-Greens swag of massive election promises would simply bring New Zealand to a grinding halt again and send all taxpayers a very big bill.”

For further information:
• Green Party Election 2014 Spending Announcements - as at 17 August 2014
• Labour Party Election 2014 Spending Announcements - as at 11 August 2014

ENDS

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