12.8 billion reasons Hipkins is not a serious person

“Chris Hipkins can’t be trusted with the books, after he said Treasury figures were ‘made up’,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Labour has promised to restore all the bureaucracy of the old pay equity regime. Treasury-backed Budget figures put the cost of doing that at up to $12.8 billion. Now, Hipkins has made the incredible claim that the numbers ‘appear to be made up’.

“That’s fiscal denialism, bordering on conspiracy theory: if the numbers sound scary, the people with spreadsheets must be inventing them.

“If Hipkins doesn’t trust Treasury – the department governments of all stripes have relied on for costings for decades – who will he get to cook up an alternative figure?

“One way or another, the fiscal chickens will come home to roost. If Chris Hipkins genuinely believes Treasury’s numbers are wrong, he should do what real leaders do: publish his costings, show his assumptions, and tell New Zealanders what he will cut, tax, or borrow to pay for his promise.

“This is exactly how Labour governed: big promises, billions more in debt. Our children are paying the interest on Labour’s last lot of spending, our grandkids will be paying interest on the next.

“We need courage and honesty to face up to our fiscal challenges. That’s why ACT has been consistent: we need a smaller, more efficient government that respects taxpayers today and tomorrow. We get higher wages when Kiwis are free to invest their money in good ideas, not when they’re saddled with the cost of poorly thought-out election promises.”

Note to Editors:

As reported in The Post:

“We said that we would reverse [pay equity reform] on the day it was passed,” Hipkins said.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis says the changes saved up to $12.8 billion over the four-year operating period … Hipkins said some of the figures “appear to be made up” and Labour was committed to making the “principles exactly the same as they were beforehand”.