Paul Goldsmith - Finance

8 August 2019

The Government’s failure to deliver more, high quality infrastructure is slowing the economy and contributed to the Reserve Bank’s historic decision to cut the Official Cash Rate to just one per cent, National’s Finance Spokesperson Paul Goldsmith says.

“Budget 2019 trimmed back Government capital spending forecasts by $3.3 billion over the next five years. That means less infrastructure than was previously planned.

“The Government has stopped or postponed a dozen roading projects, which were ready to get underway, and replaced them with projects that aren’t ready to go and won’t be for a long time yet.

“The Government is yet to undertake any detailed design work, procurement or RMA consenting on its flagship infrastructure project, the slow tram down Dominion Road in Auckland.

“Not only has the Government failed to deliver more infrastructure, the infrastructure it has prioritised is low quality. The failure to deliver a high quality infrastructure plan has destroyed confidence in the construction sector and contributed to New Zealand’s slowing economy.

“This Government’s inept economic management contributed to yesterday’s decision by the Reserve Bank to slash the OCR to try and stimulate the slowing economy. New Zealand is now closer than ever before to having negative interest rates and unconventional, unreliable monetary policy like quantitative easing.

“National would revive the economy by having a plan for growth that would see confidence bounce back and the economy gain the strength it’s lost under this Government.”

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