Bill English MP
National Party Finance Spokesman

24 October 2008

Another week – still no costings on Labour promises

National Party Finance spokesman Bill English says another week has passed and Labour still hasn’t supplied a set of costings for all the promises it has made since it delivered a set of books showing a decade of deficits.

“Labour has made hundreds of millions of dollars of promises since the pre-election opening the books. Helen Clark has offered no advice about the impact of that spending on the government accounts.

“It is simply unacceptable for Labour to say there will be a mini-Budget after the election. They have known about the state of the books for weeks longer than National.

“They are either incapable of producing reliable figures, or they are being deceptive. New Zealanders deserve to know what Helen Clark’s promises will do to the debt and deficit tracks.”

Mr English has released a list of 29 promises** that Labour has made since the PREFU. Many are uncosted, or the costings are unclear.

“Labour challenged National to say how it would fund its programme for economic growth. We have done just that. We have made some choices as we are committed to getting New Zealand out of deficits and on to an earlier growth path.

“Our opponents are offering uncosted promises in the hope they can deliver the bad news after the election.

“It’s time for Labour to produce some idea of how all these promises are going to be paid for or which ones they’re going to withdraw.”

ENDS

**Attached List of 28 promises since the PREFU – 1 page

Labour Promises Since PREFU
Conservation
01 - St James Station
Education and Innovation
02 - Universal Student Allowance
03 - Special Education
04 - Pay Jolt for School Support Staff
05 - Retraining Allowance
06 - Redundancy Retraining Allowance
07 - Otago Institute of Design
08 - Sancta Maria College
09 - Modern Apprenticeships Boost
Housing
10 - HOPE Scheme
11 - Insulation Fund
Social Development
12 - Increasing Weekly Earnings threshold for benefits
13 - 66% average wage married couple Superannuation
14 - Change treatment of ACC payments for beneficiaries
15 - Expand training for unemployed people not on benefits
16 - Expand Heartlands Service
17 - Expand Enterprising Community Grants
Economic
18 - Reduce Use Of Money interest rate for Provisional Tax underpayment
19 - Bring Forward Infrastructure Spending
Health
20 - Supporting Midwives
21 - Heart Funding
20 October onwards
22 - Training Opportunities Program- Restore funding level
23 - Aged Care Reform
24 - NZ Innovation Centre Tamaki
25 - Albany Senior High
26 - New School Buildings
27 – Early Childhood Education
28 - Youth Health Oral Services
29 -Environment BOP Sustainable Development Grant

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