Finance Minister Grant Robertson needs to front up on the costings for his Government’s expensive policy pledges, National Party Finance Spokesperson Steven Joyce says.

“Yesterday we learnt that Mr Robertson did have coalition costings prepared by the Treasury before the coalition was announced on 19 October,” Mr Joyce says.

“This is despite him refusing to release the costings on 28 October on TV3’s The Nation because he hadn’t had the opportunity to ‘work with the public service’.

“It is clear now that excuse was a blatant fabrication.

“Then today we have the very unusual situation where the policy on lifting student loans and allowances by $50 a week is announced by Minister Hipkins, with no substantive costings whatsoever.

“All the public has to go on are the suggested costings from the infamous BERL pre-election fiscal plan that Mr Robertson refuses to stand by.

“Where is the information on the cost of student allowances? Where is the expected extra write-off on student loans caused by this change?

“We know that Treasury and the Ministry of Education would have provided costings for this policy for it to go through Cabinet. Mr Robertson needs to release those figures.

“This is serious stuff. The Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Statement released less than two weeks ago had multitude caveats in it about domestic policy uncertainty because they have no idea what the new government is planning.

“This isn’t Labour’s money, it’s the public’s money. And the public is entitled to know what the new Government is spending in its name.

“Mr Robertson needs to step up and release his coalition costings, and also insist Ministers release policy costings when new policies are announced. Or are they just afraid to spoil their ‘good news’ stories with some fiscal reality.”

The new Coalition Government needs to rapidly put a ceiling on the debt levels it’s prepared to tolerate as it opens wide the taxpayers chequebook, National Party Finance Spokesperson Steven Joyce says.

“The admissions in Parliament today from Grant Robertson that he may allow debt to grow by more than $11 billion compared to the figures in the Government’s Pre-Election Fiscal Update will be concerning to all Kiwis,” Mr Joyce says.

“When I invited him to re-commit to his pre-election promise of limiting debt to no more than $67.6 billion, he refused.

“So what is Mr Robertson’s upper limit? Is it $70 billion or $75 billion? The major bank economists certainly believe it will be higher than he thinks.

“Remember net government debt was on track to reduce to $56 billion only two months ago.

“Mr Robertson’s admission follows hard on the heels of three bank reports that say the Government’s spending plans are unrealistic and ‘too tight to be credible’.

“The ANZ even says there will be no way the Government is able to meet its own Budget Responsibility Rule on debt.

“Mr Robertson needs to haul himself into line along with the rest of the Cabinet so that the increased debt predictions of the major trading banks don’t come to pass.

“New Zealanders have all worked hard to get the Government books back into surplus and start reducing the debt built up as a result of the Global Financial Crisis and the Canterbury earthquakes. 

“The public will be surprised at how quickly Mr Robertson is backing away from his own numbers when he’s only been in the job three weeks.”

The new Government needs to be much clearer on its spending plans so that public institutions like Treasury and the Reserve Bank have sufficient information to perform their roles effectively, National Party Finance Spokesperson Steven Joyce says.

“This morning’s Monetary Policy Statement from the Reserve Bank makes numerous mentions of domestic policy uncertainty including ‘uncertainty around tax policy’, uncertainty around the ‘future impact of these policy changes’ and ‘heightened uncertainty regarding the domestic outlook,” Mr Joyce says.

“While the Bank is taking a steady as she goes approach at this point, it is clear that their economic forecasting is affected by a lack of clarity from the new Government as to their fiscal and economic plans.

“This is not a surprise as we are all still yet to see the figures underpinning the coalition agreement between Labour and New Zealand First, which was signed over two weeks ago, and we are all still yet to see the Government’s mythical final 100 Day Plan.

“Yesterday’s Speech from the Throne contained 51 new spending commitments, which will put significant pressure on the Government’s spending track and net debt.

“The first Bill In Parliament this week seeks to legislate for $325 million of extra spending, without any reference to how this fits in to the government’s wider spending plan.

“The public will rightly be concerned that the large number of spending promises they have heard about could sacrifice New Zealand’s hard work to get back into surplus and start paying down debt.

“The irony is that in recent years all the economic risks have been offshore. Now just as the world economic outlook is strengthening, all the risk and uncertainty is being generated domestically by the economic opaqueness of the new Government.

“It is time for the Government to be much more transparent and start releasing more details of their fiscal plans.”

The Labour Party should be careful with its review of the Reserve Bank so there remains complete clarity over the Bank’s primary role, National Party Finance Spokesperson Steven Joyce says.

“The Reserve Bank has done a good job managing monetary policy for New Zealand in recent years, and has played its part in New Zealand’s strong economic performance,” Mr Joyce says.

“With the help of sensible government policies, the Bank hasn’t had to resort to unorthodox approaches like quantitative easing or zero or negative interest rates in order to navigate the Global Financial Crisis as many other Central Banks have.

“Notably, New Zealand currently has the third-highest rate of adult employment in the whole of the developed world. The Bank already takes employment into account when setting interest rates so this makes Mr Robertson’s plan to introduce maximising employment as a second objective for the bank redundant at best, and potentially confusing.

“Monetary policy can only work successfully alongside appropriate fiscal and microeconomic policy settings and these are controlled by the government of the day. Mr Robertson needs to be aware he won’t be able to put in place policies that reduce employment and then blame the Reserve Bank if they can’t achieve full employment.

“Regardless of what he writes into the Reserve Bank Act, it will be Mr Robertson that is accountable for any decline in employment in the New Zealand.

“National is supportive of potentially formalising the current informal decision-making committee process of the Bank,” Mr Joyce says. “However we will be watchful for any plan to introduce outsiders onto the committee because that could blur the Bank’s accountability.

“We will also keep a watching brief on the second part of the review.  We appreciate that part is largely a pro-forma nod to Labour’s coalition agreement with New Zealand First and the very negative views Mr Peters has of the modern and open New Zealand economy. We will be vigilant for anything which would be detrimental to the economic future of New Zealanders.”

The Government should tell Phil Goff and his council to control their spending to free up money for public transport rather than letting them raid Aucklanders’ wallets with a regional fuel tax, National Party Finance Spokesperson Steven Joyce says.

“This Council’s spending is running away on them,” Mr Joyce says. “The last thing they should be given by the Finance Minister is a regional fuel tax so they can take more money off Aucklanders.”

Mr Joyce noted the Council’s recent annual report confirms that annual revenue has increased by $1 billion over the last four years as the city has grown.

“A lot of that additional income has disappeared in business as usual,” Mr Joyce says.

“The Council has allowed its wage bill alone to go up 23 per cent in the last four years. It was $160 million higher last financial year than it was four years ago. That’s a huge increase in the context of very low inflation.

“Their total expenditure Is now $3.8 billion annually, up from $3.0 billion four years ago. No wonder they’ve run out of money for transport and other infrastructure.

“The cost saving measures Mr Goff proposed last week are very small in comparison with the problem. $370 million over ten years is just $37 million a year, considerably less than 1 per cent of the Council’s annual budget over that period.

“Grant Robertson should not be letting Mr Goff off the hook.

“The regional fuel tax will effectively only cover the cost of their wage increases,” Mr Joyce says.

“With some decent cost management the city would be able to raise the equivalent of a $150 million a year regional fuel tax, with money left over.

“Labour’s regional fuel tax will effectively just bail out the Auckland Council. The Government should do as the previous Government did and tell the Council to manage its costs properly instead.”

Read Auckland Council Financial Metrics Here

The Labour Government’s jury-rigged “ban” on selling houses to foreign buyers in a very strange announcement that raises many more questions than it answers, National Party Finance spokesperson Steven Joyce says.

“The first and strangest thing about Labour’s announcement is that it isn’t an actual ban. Putting houses through a sensitive land purchase criteria is definitely bureaucratic but does not constitute a ban on such sales,” Mr Joyce says.

“There are also all sorts of definitional questions. Is an apartment on the fourth floor of a building ‘sensitive land’? Is a two hectare property with two houses on it that’s being sold for development able to be sold to an international investor?

“This proposal would also be a massive compliance cost for house buyers of all types. For example, will somebody with a foreign sounding name have to prove their citizenship to the real estate agent?

“The whole announcement was very strange,” Mr Joyce says. “There has been no paperwork released and the Prime Minister indicated many of the detailed decisions remain to be made.

“This smacks very much as a ‘bright idea’ with absolutely no detail or evidence base behind it. The Prime Minister even spoke as if the Auckland property market was still rapidly appreciating whereas in actual fact it’s been flat to falling for the last year.

“Finally, if the idea gets over all the hurdles, would it actually work in terms of satisfying the concerns of our trading partners? It appears on the face of it that it would treat investors from other countries less favourably than New Zealand investors.

“This is a policy that’s designed to solve a political problem. Evidence in both Australia and here in New Zealand is that overseas buyers don’t have a significant impact on the housing market.” 

New Finance Minister Grant Robertson needs to front up on the new coalition government’s spending plans and not make inaccurate excuses, National Party Finance Spokesperson Steven Joyce says.

“Mr Robertson has done two long-form interviews over this weekend and yet New Zealanders are still none the wiser about the cost of the coalition’s programme and the impact on their back pockets.

“Saying that he won’t reveal the numbers because he didn’t have access to the public service to prepare them as he did on TV3’s The Nation, is just not good enough,” Mr Joyce says.

“All parties in post-election coalition negotiations were given access to the public service to cost their commitments so that excuse just doesn’t wash.

“That sounds like someone who simply doesn’t want to reveal the numbers.

“He’s either had them costed and doesn’t like what they add up to, or not had them costed. Either way it’s not a reassuring start.

“New Zealand’s healthy government accounts are the product of the hard work of millions of Kiwis. They are entitled to know how much has gone out of their collective pockets in the process of forming this government.

“They also have a right to know whether the new government’s spending plans in actual dollars will match the cast-iron commitments Labour repeatedly made before the election.

“Mr Robertson is already acknowledging his budget is ‘very tight’ and ‘ambitious’.

He needs to front up quickly with the cost of this coalition.”

The New Zealand Government has achieved its third fiscal surplus in a row with the Crown accounts for the year ended 30 June 2017 showing an OBEGAL surplus of $4.1 billion, $2.2 billion stronger than last year, Finance Minister Steven Joyce says.

“The 2016/17 Crown accounts are a direct demonstration of the hard work of New Zealanders since the Global Financial Crisis and the benefit of a strong economic plan that is delivering consistent growth,” Mr Joyce says.

Core Crown tax revenue was $75.6 billion for the 2016/17 year, up 7.4 per cent from the previous year with all major tax types increasing.

“The 12.3 per cent growth over last year in company tax, a 7.1 per cent growth in GST, and a 7.4 per cent growth in personal income tax, are a direct consequence of the confidence and growth of Kiwi companies and the growth in jobs.”

Core Crown tax revenue growth of $5.2 billion outpaced core Crown expenditure growth of $2.4 billion.

The final OBEGAL result for the year is $363 million better than predicted by Treasury at the time of the Pre-election Fiscal Update, largely due to core Crown expenditure being $502 million less than forecast. 

“This better result should be seen as a one-off. Treasury advises that much of this expenditure reduction reflects timing differences and is likely to reverse out in the years ahead,” Mr Joyce says. 

The country’s net debt has reduced in nominal terms by $2.4 billion from last year, to $59.5 billion. Net debt has dropped to 22.2 per cent of GDP.

“This is the first time net debt has reduced in actual dollar terms since the GFC and the Christchurch earthquakes,” Mr Joyce says. “It’s a significant milestone in the country’s economic recovery from those twin shocks.”

Mr Joyce says that the 2016/17 full year result should be interpreted with caution, and not seen as automatically flowing through into higher surpluses than forecast in the years ahead.

“Treasury has based its forecasts on current economic settings and some reasonably solid growth predictions for the years ahead. A number of commentators have noted a softening of growth indicators in recent days.

“The Government’s future surpluses will be needed to meet the cost of the significant investments we have committed to as part of the next four Budgets including the Government’s $32.5 billion infrastructure programme.

“We also need to keep reducing debt over time to prepare for the next rainy day event.” 

The New Zealand economy continued to grow solidly in the June quarter, posting a 0.8 per cent increase in GDP, taking New Zealand's growth rate for the year to 2.7 per cent, Finance Minister Steven Joyce says.

“Our economy continues to outperform many developed nations, underpinned by strong export and domestic demand,” Mr Joyce says. “It is still a challenging international environment, which is why we need to continue with an economic plan that is working for New Zealand.”

New Zealand’s growth over the last year has exceeded that of Australia, the United Kingdom, the USA, the Euro area, Japan, and the average across the whole OECD.

Growth in the quarter was across 11 of 16 industries, including:

• Retail, trade and accommodation (up 2.8 per cent)
• Manufacturing activity (up 1.8 per cent)
• Business services (up 1.1 per cent)
• Transport, postal and warehousing activity (up 3.5 per cent)

Exports rose 5.2 per cent, with exports of goods posting its biggest quarterly increase in 20 years. Overall growth in the quarter was partially offset by the construction sector, which contracted 1.1 per cent in the quarter but up 6.4 per cent from June 2016.

Today’s GDP figures followed on from the release of New Zealand's external accounts yesterday, which showed a current account deficit of 2.8 per cent for the June year.

"This week’s economic growth statistics show that the Government’s consistent economic plan is encouraging businesses to invest and grow more jobs for New Zealanders.  It is important to maintain and support business confidence if we are to continue our progress in the years ahead."

Better than expected balance of payments figures out this morning underscore the strength of both the services and goods sectors of the New Zealand economy, Finance Minister Steven Joyce says.

New Zealand's current account deficit narrowed to $1.6 billion in the June 2017 quarter, $1.2 billion lower than in the previous quarter. This is mainly driven by the services sector, with a surplus of $1.3 billion, the highest surplus on record.

New Zealand’s current account deficit is 2.8 per cent of GDP in the June year, down from 2.9 per cent in the last quarter, ahead of market forecasts for a deficit of 3.1 per cent.

"Today’s result is one of the dividends of an increasingly diversified economy, with both services and goods exports performing well in the quarter,” Mr Joyce says. “The services sector in particular, had a strong run in the quarter driven by $3.7 billion of spending by overseas travellers.”

Key highlights included:

- Services surplus increased $295 million to $1.3 billion

- The goods deficit decreased $677 million to $446 million

- New Zealand’s net international liability position is equivalent to 57.5 per cent of GDP, down from 57.8 per cent in the previous quarter, the lowest since records began.

"The days of New Zealand as a one-trick economy are behind us, but this does not mean we can rest on our laurels. We need to continue the government's strong economic plan so we can further diversify and grow our economy.”