Comments made by Chris Hipkins this morning show the Labour government used the COVID-19 pandemic as a fig leaf to justify spending on projects and programmes that had nothing to do with the pandemic, National Party Finance Spokesperson Nicola Willis says.

The Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 reported yesterday that about half of the $60 million allocated for the pandemic response was spent on projects and programmes that were unrelated to the pandemic.

Questioned on radio this morning about the Commission’s findings, Mr Hipkins said “I think the Government would have ended up doing those things anyway”.

Both the Royal Commission and the Treasury have concluded that Labour spending in the name of COVID pushed up the cost of living and debt.

Mr Hipkins’ comments show Labour has learned nothing from the pain its reckless borrowing has caused families. It used Covid as an excuse to do what it always does – spend taxpayers’ money with wild abandon.

Labour always finds an excuse. If it gets back in power, it will do exactly the same thing again: borrow more, spend more, tax more and plunge the country into dangerously deeper debt.

Treasury and MBIE advice from the outset of the pandemic was that fiscal stimulus measures should be timely, targeted and temporary.

Yesterday’s report confirms that Chris Hipkins and Labour ignored that advice.

Winston Churchill famously said those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Unfortunately, if Mr Hipkins and his big-borrowing prospective coalition partners – the Greens and Te Pati Māori – have their way, it is ordinary Kiwis, not him, who will pay the price of their refusal to learn the lessons of history.

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