Gerry Brownlee MP
National Party State Services Spokesman

9 October 2008

Labour’s skewed sense of priorities laid bare

National Party State Services spokesman Gerry Brownlee says Helen Clark’s decision to host a tax-funded photo op to celebrate spending $40 million on a high country sheep station in the same week that she unveiled a decade of deficits is further evidence of Labour’s skewed sense of priorities.

“Rather than laying out a plan to promote growth and get New Zealanders through the recession she has led us into, Helen Clark chose instead to front up at a soft media opportunity which the Department of Conservation paid for to promote her $40 million spend-up.”

Mr Brownlee says Kiwis will be outraged that Michael Cullen and Labour have known about the grim state of the books for weeks but have not offered any constructive solutions to start dealing with the economic situation.

“Helen Clark’s entire agenda appears to revolve around spending more taxpayer money attempting to secure her and Labour’s political survival.

“If spending taxpayer money the way Labour does is the answer to all our economic worries why, after nine years and bumper surpluses, are we in the situation we’re in now?

“This week we’ve been shown final proof that this country can no longer afford Labour or Michael Cullen. They have no plan, they have no new ideas, and they are increasingly showing poor judgment at a time when caution should be applied.”

ENDS

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