Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
License needed for work use Register
Parliament

Gordon Campbell | Parliament TV | Parliament Today | Video | Questions Of the Day | Search

 

National must be made to come clean

Hon Michael Cullen
Minister of Finance

5 September 2005 Media Statement

National must be made to come clean

Finance Minister Michael Cullen today accused National of trying to buy their way to power and challenged it to come clean about how it plans to fund its tax cuts and other promises.

“National’s tax cuts would cost a whopping $9.95 billion over four years. They claim they would fund this from projected operating surpluses and through a mix of extra borrowing and spending cuts. But, as the [attached] analysis shows, National’s numbers don’t add up,” Dr Cullen said.

“First, there is no uncommitted surplus. Instead Treasury is projecting a cash deficit over the four year forecast period of $4.16 billion.

“National’s additional borrowing would be on top of that amount.”

Dr Cullen said the net cost of National’s tax cuts over and above what a Labour government would spend was $7.2 billion. Deduct from this the $3.5 billion in extra debt they say they would take on, and they still had a further $3.7 billion to find by way of spending cuts.

“Make no mistake, this is a significant amount and would entail cuts to health and education and other public services valued by New Zealanders.

“National has identified some cuts – the abolition of KiwiSaver, the removal of the indexation of tax thresholds and the scrapping of the planned $10 per child per week increase in Working for Families. But this leaves them with a $2.75 billion shortfall.

“This analysis shows National’s numbers simply don’t stack up. Clearly they are planning much deeper spending cuts than they are prepared to tell the public about in this election campaign,” Dr Cullen said.

Attached: analysis of National’s spending and tax commitments

ENDS



Click for big version

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading

Are you getting our free newsletter?

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.

© Scoop Media

Advertisement - scroll to continue reading
 
 
 
Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Regional Headlines

Gordon Campbell: On How Climate Change Threatens Cricket‘s Future

Well that didn’t last long, did it? Mere days after taking on what he called the “awesome responsibility” of being Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon has started blaming everyone else and complaining that he's inherited “economic vandalism on an unprecedented scale” - which is how most of us would describe his own coalition agreements, 100-Day Plan, and backdated $3 billion handout to landlords... More


 
 
Public Housing Futures: Christmas Comes Early For Landlords

New CTU analysis of the National & ACT coalition agreement has shown the cost of returning interest deductibility to landlords is an extra $900M on top of National’s original proposal. This is because it is going to be implemented earlier and faster, including retrospective rebates from April 2023. More


Green Party: Petition To Save Oil & Gas Ban

“The new Government’s plan to expand oil and gas exploration is as dangerous as it is unscientific. Whatever you think about the new government, there is simply no mandate to trash the climate. We need to come together to stop them,” says James Shaw. More

PSA: MFAT Must Reverse Decision To Remove Te Reo

MFAT's decision to remove te reo from correspondence before new Ministers are sworn in risks undermining the important progress the public sector has made in honouring te Tiriti. "We are very disappointed in what is a backward decision - it simply seems to be a Ministry bowing to the racist rhetoric we heard on the election campaign trail," says Marcia Puru. More

 
 
 
 
 
 

LATEST HEADLINES

  • PARLIAMENT
  • POLITICS
  • REGIONAL
 
 

InfoPages News Channels


 
 
 
 

Join Our Free Newsletter

Subscribe to Scoop’s 'The Catch Up' our free weekly newsletter sent to your inbox every Monday with stories from across our network.