Rarely would I agree with statements from Dr Don Brash, but he had me nodding my head in agreement for parts of his interview on Chinese Radio AM936 this morning.
Regarding Government spending, Dr Brash said the current National Government had spent much more than the previous Labour Government.
Dr Brash went on to say that both the previous National and Labour governments had managed government debt well, meaning the current John Key-led Government started from a good point. However under Prime Minister John Key and Finance Minister Bill English’s watch, government debt has gone from bad to worse.
This reminded me of our debate with National MPs in 2009. National claimed that ACC was leaking millions of dollars under Labour, we argued that the figures do not back up the National Governments unjust cutting of services and upping of ACC levies and that National’s claims were nothing more than scaremongering.
But it has now proved that the ACC debacle of 2009 was just a pre-cursor that led to the National Government hiking ACC levies before they privatise the organisation should they get another term in office.
The world will be a much nicer place if politicians would say what the issues really are (as they are).
Bill English’s repeated lines such as “in the last long nine years” and “economic mismanagement by Labour” may give him an instant boost in his blame game, but the facts will be spelt out sooner or later – just as Dr Brash did this morning.
It seems to me you are always one to leave out crucial parts of information
The national Government has of course spent more – there was the massive Christchurch Earthquake to deal with, but more importantly before Dr Cullen left he literally spent everything and a bit more to make life as difficult as possible for the incoming government. In real terms the national Government has barely increased spending, and excluding the Chch Earthquakes, there is literally no new spending.
Labour did spend up massively but then because of over taxation of the middle classses he has $10b plus surpluses. He used those surpluses to prop up support from the typical Labout voter with mainly WFF. There was very little tight control on expenditure. Money was thrown at problems rather than being smart with the money.
A classic example is ACC their funds lost billions of $ under Labour. It was being rorted by the health professionals. Even their property Manager was convicted of corruption such were their lax controls.
I could go on for pages proving that there was economic mis-management by Labour and this was especially the case in the last three years between 2005 and 2008. Now National are going to take many long years to undo the damage of the Labour Government.
{Monty, this is just rubbish and assertion. Zero net public debt when Labour left office. ACC was a fabricated crisis, etc etc. We will have to start deleting comments if you insist on just making things up, Grant}
NO, you couldn’t go on for pages proving mismanagement but you could go on for pages repeating opinions or assertions of such.
ACC “lost” money from the fund which invests in markets when the worldwide stock market collapsed. It since regained that lost ground.
The earthquake was awful but had a silver lining, namely that the country will receive over $1bn in overseas money via reinsurers based offshore. Think of it as a Think Big Scheme.
Yet again you contradict the MOF on the state of the govt debt/coffers when he took over. Cullen’s economic policy is one reason national was out of Government for so long, because they couldn’t argue with his tight fiscal control (too close tot heir own hearts). No such shift by this government to recognise the value and contribution of those not typically seen as its traditional base.
You forgot to factor in the cost tot he country of the tax cuts reflected in part of the weekly borrowing we are committed to.
Given your penchant for lists perhaps now is a good time to ask you, again, to post the list of campaign promises made by National in 2008 (with full knowledge of the financial crisis – but not the earthquake) and how implementation over the last (near) three years matches up to them?
I can start
No tax cuts – GST rises
Won’t talk (about job creation), will do
Zero Net Debt Grant… After the years of Milk and Honey Labour enjoyed, we should have had money in the Bank!
After the years of Milk and Honey Labour enjoyed, we should have had money in the Bank!
We did jeff. Fiscal surplus at end of 2008 – $3 billion.
Bill English acknowledged it at the time.
Remember too Key and English before 2008 were saying we need to borrow more , not pay it back.
The words were ” New Zealand has a growth problem not a debt problem”
http://www.national.org.nz/Article.aspx?articleId=28316
Since that time – which seems a golden age in hindsight- the debt problem has started to become a concern, growth is laughable, inflation this year is the highest in a long time , unemployment has ballooned.
National said we can do better – they have done worse , much much worse.
Can you blame National for spending a bit more?
Not only has there been a Financial Crisis, the worst financial recession since the Great Depression, 2 major Earthquakes, but also a Rugby World Cup to prepare for. I don’t think its fair to criticize National on the grounds of a short term increase in Government Debt. I would love to see a well-reasoned argument with a long-term perspective criticizing National rather than mere hearsay.
Cheers,
Concerned.
Isn’t it fascinating how quick the trolls come out to attack good opposition. National are leadig us down a dangerous path, it doesn’t take a genius to figure that out.
Keep them honest Labour, we’re going to need it in the coming months. We need strong economic leadership serving the best interests of our country, not a few ‘wealth creators’.
To the trolls I say wake up! National have been racking up debt to give tax cuts to the wealthy and they’ve stopped funding our future so you guys can sit around and act as if they’re not doing anything wrong.
Grant, nothing of what I said is made up. ACC were in big trouble. they were a rotten organization, terrible and ineffectual management, bad decisions, and Labour had continually expanded the benefits they offered.
In respect of deficits, true there was a nil book, but the massive spending commitments of Cullen were a disaster waiting to happen, which with the international GFC is exactly what happened. They earthquake made it a whole lot worse
To cut the massive commitments made by labour would have been political suicide. So Nats were left with no choice but to modify without scaring horses.
Montybear – ACC was in good financial shape!
Man, this country has gone to the dogs!
someone has obviously been spiking monties drinks…i’m impressed with the force that he is pushing nick smith’s obvious lies…
it was patently clear he was lying when the “crisis” in acc was being loudly proclaimed… (worth noting that our news agencies trumpeted these lies without even a flinch). it was pointed out by people who understood the issues on a fundamental level that the figures used were actually a deliberate misrepresentation of reality….(either ignored, or attacked for saying so by the media)…
the lie was exposed by the govt announcing the “rehabilitation” of acc’s accounts to the point that(in an election year) reductions in levies were announced.
anyone who has even a basic understanding of how acc works will see how utterly dishonest the approach is… if an organisation is actually in the kind of financial straights acc was supposed to be in, knows that it would take much longer that 18 months to turn that situation around completely..
so the lies are shown up… the political manipulation continues at pace(with total compliance from the “fourth column”)…..
the only upside of this debacle is that we now have the opportunity to laugh at the antics of those who would perpetrate this fraud…. and that is small compensation indeed for those of us who have had to bear the brunt of smiths duplicity..
No Monty,
All that NAct did was change the ACC head to a NAct supporter who then proceeded to encourage rape counselling victims to top themselves by cutting their counselling. Nothing like reducing the drain on public resources, by reducing the people needing help, eh, Monty.
That’s the standard NAct way. Get rid of the people through bad policies (off to Australia), cutting life support systems like counselling, switching income and outgoings to ensure outgoings higher and incoming foods reduced, killing off support for workers to achieve fair pay for fair work.
There really is no end to your hatred of New Zealanders is there Monty.