"Labour says it will continue loaning money to businesses and pay some more people to clean up rivers, but New Zealand needs a much bigger vision," according to ACT Leader David Seymour

"The real questions I hear every day are 'how will we pay the debt,' and 'how can we reconnect with the rest of the world?'

"Instead, labour leaned on fear, saying it will be dangerous to reconnect with the world and we should be worried about losing our freedoms. This is not the language of an achieving society with enlightened leadership.

"Despite being in Government with the enormous resources of Treasury and the Ministry of Health, Labour is not answering fundamental questions about debt and global reconnection.

"Cleaning up rivers is a nice and probably worthwhile thing to do, but it is a sideshow in the context of the economic challenge New Zealand is facing.

"Altogether, Labour's approach amounts to mending a broken bone with a band-aid.

"Meanwhile, Government debt is set to reach its practical limit by 2024 and there is no plan to reign it in, debt has simply been put in the too hard basket.

"A bigger opportunity missed is to set a vision for how New Zealand emerges stronger from the crisis. Cleaning a few rivers and continuing a business loan policy is no vision.

"The Government could have talked about investing in smarter public health, it could have talked about reforming the RMA to boost infrastructure and homebuilding, it could have talked about dealing to red tape and regulation, it could have talked about removing barriers to foreign investment to take advantage of New Zealand's apparent status as a COVID-free haven.

"Sadly Labour had nothing to say about any of that. Happily, it is all in ACT's 5-point plan for growing the economy and balancing the books post Covid.

"ACT is providing the thought leadership for getting New Zealand moving, doing more of the same won't cut it.

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