ACT Leader David Seymour is urging Chris Hipkins to bring serious ideas to today’s Labour retreat – because so far, Labour’s only policies would make New Zealanders worse off.

“Chris Hipkins, the recidivist country-destroyer, has retreated to his lair, presumably to stockpile fresh petrol for the economic fire he was stoking just 18 months ago,” says Seymour.

“He moans about the people leaving New Zealand, even while proposing to tax the ones who stay harder – and ban the industries that could bring Kiwis back – just as the economy is turning the corner.

“Yesterday, Treasury confirmed what ACT said at the time: Labour ignored clear advice not to ‘stimulate’ the post-COVID economy with reckless spending. Grant Robertson did it anyway, ramping up the spending machine, flooding the economy with cheap money that pushed up debt, then inflation, then interest rates, and now unemployment.

“It was economic vandalism on an historic scale. Now, as we hose down the smouldering ashes of Labour's inferno, Hipkins cries ‘austerity’ – like an arsonist returning to the scene of the crime, asking for the matches back.

“Labour is a party out of ideas – and the vacuum will be filled by the Greens and Te Pāti Māori. That circus would plunge us into third world conditions: higher debt, crippling taxes, more division, and fewer reasons to build a life in New Zealand.”

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