Labour’s Fiscal Plan requires four zero Budgets

Labour’s Fiscal Plan requires four zero Budgets

Labour’s Fiscal Plan requires four consecutive Budgets that freeze teachers’ pay, provide no new funding for schools or police, and no new funding for medicines, National’s Finance spokesperson Nicola Willis says.

Labour’s fiscal plan contains $10.5 billion of unallocated funding over the next four years, but this is almost entirely taken up with the funding required for Labour’s pay equity policy ($8.5 billion), and for Health cost pressures ($1.55 billion).

• Treasury has independently assessed the cost of reinstating Labour’s scheme would be $11 billion, and Labour has so far allocated just $2.5 billion. That leaves $8.5 billion missing for settlements, which Labour has said will be covered by the ‘unallocated funding’ line in the fiscal plan.
• Labour’s fiscal plan makes no allowance for health cost pressures in 2030/31, at $1.55 billion.

“After accounting for pay equity and health, Labour’s cupboard is bare.

“Believing Labour’s fiscal plan therefore requires Kiwis to believe that Labour will deliver four Budgets in a row with no new spending for anything else.

“It is simply farcical.

“And that is before you count the cost of their commitments to a public transport fare cap ($260 million), diverting dividends to the Future Fund ($2.8 billion), a nurse graduate guarantee ($526 million), and replacing the foregone revenue from the NLTF needed for basic road maintenance ($3.1 billion).

“It is clear that Labour has panicked after being exposed on its plans to tax New Zealanders more to pay for their hidden bill,” Willis says.

“Instead of fronting up to Kiwis with their real plan to spend, tax and borrow, Chris Hipkins and Barbara Edmonds have presented a sham set of numbers that have absolutely no basis in reality.

“It confirms that if Labour is re-elected, New Zealanders will be hit with nine new taxes which will eat away at their household budgets. 

“The election is going to be tight and the choice could not be clearer. It's either a Labour coalition that would squander surpluses, increase debt and hit Kiwis with nine new taxes. Or National with a plan to grow the economy, spend sensibly and get debt down, with no new taxes so Kiwis can get ahead.”