26 August 2005 Media Statement

Show us the money Dr Brash

Don Brash needs to explain how he will pay for John Key's latest spending promise says Transport Minister Pete Hodgson.

On Friday, John Key published National's alternative budget. It carefully set out how National would spend $605 million on transport from the Crown Account over the next three years. This needs to be compared with the $1.235 billion Labour has committed to spend on transport from the Crown Account over the next three years. These figures do not include debt or the outcome of the funding package currently underway in the Waikato.

Yesterday, John Key told the Waikato Times that National would spend all of Labour's $1,235 billion on transport from the Crown Account over the next three years. The difference between Friday's and Wednesday's promise is $630 million.

"Don Brash, how is National going to pay for this?" asks Pete Hodgson.

"National's spending promises already significantly exceed the spending allowed for in its alternative budget across a number of policy areas. Not even Rob Muldoon produced numbers as flaky as those now being offered up by Don Brash and John Key.

"National's numbers don't add up and it's about time the former governor of the Reserve Bank explained himself."

ENDS

© Scoop Media