7 October 2008

Key must act responsibly: Greens

The Green Party is calling on John Key to do the responsible thing and drop his plans for further tax cuts on top of Labour's tax cuts, in light of the Government's financial position and the uncertainty in global financial markets.

"John Key must come out tomorrow and show that he is a statesman and not just a politician by announcing that National would not proceed with further tax cuts if they were to lead the next Government," Greens Co-Leader Russel Norman says. "He needs to put the interests of New Zealand ahead of his political interests.

Anything else would be grossly irresponsible in the current economic circumstances. "The pre-election fiscal update already shows we will be borrowing heavily in upcoming years. It actually underestimates the size of the worldwide crisis because it was finalised before the latest global economic calamities. The current round of financial collapses and bailouts makes global recession more likely, impacting on New Zealand's trade position, and making the cost of borrowing much higher.

"We already owe a net $159 billion as a nation. Borrowing further should only be done for sustainable infrastructure, not for tax cuts. "We need a decent public transport system, we need insulated warm homes," Dr Norman says. "The Green Party's public transport spending plans won't cost any extra taxpayer money because we will just redirect the money allocated for new motorway projects. And we have already won a billion dollar home insulation fund under the Emissions Trading Scheme.

"The last thing we should do is borrow more as a nation to fund tax cuts."

ENDS

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