Bill English MP
National Party Finance Spokesman

12 December 2007

Hodgson can’t hide PM’s broken promise

National Party Finance spokesman Bill English says Pete Hodgson’s silly sophistry on New Zealand’s growth rate can’t disguise the fact that New Zealand has dropped two places on the OECD ladder in two years.

“Helen Clark said New Zealand would be back in the top half of the OECD by 2011. Instead we’ve dropped two places in the past two years. That is what Labour’s so-called economic transformation has brought New Zealanders.

“New Zealand has dropped from 20 to 22 of the 30 member countries. This will be Helen Clark’s lasting legacy for the people of New Zealand as the wage gap accelerates between Australia and New Zealand.”

In Parliament on February 13, 2001 Helen Clark said: ‘We can look ahead 10 years and see where we could be. If we embrace innovation wholeheartedly, we can be in the top half of the OECD, not falling to the bottom’.

In November 2001, Helen Clark signed off on the foreword to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, which said: ‘these results are greatly encouraging for our goal of economic transformation and a return to the top half of the OECD ratings by 2011’.

“Instead what Helen Clark and Michael Cullen have delivered is a growth rate that has us falling further behind other economies.

“No matter how much Mr Hodgson tries to pretend differently, Helen Clark has no chance of delivering on her promise to get New Zealand into the top half of the OECD on time.”

ENDS

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