“There is a strong chance that Labour has left New Zealanders with a recession for Christmas. Six years of borrowing, spending and printing has caught up and New Zealand households are paying the price,” says ACT’s Finance spokesperson Todd Stephenson.
“Despite mass inward migration, Labour has managed to leave New Zealand with a shrinking economy.
“Too much Government waste, too much red tape and regulation, means too much compliance time and not enough productive time. New Zealanders expect first world living standards, but the economy under Labour hasn’t produced them, so Kiwis have had to borrow the gap between a second world economy and first world living standards.
“Yesterday’s damning Auditor-General report into Labour’s infrastructure spending is a timely example of how little respect Labour had for taxpayers. Labour rushed money and announcements out the door for headlines, but failed to make sure taxpayers were seeing any benefit or if the projects were even feasible.
“It’s because of this approach Grant Robertson managed to increase spending by 30 per cent - that’s after accounting for population growth and inflation, but somehow managed to get worse results from nearly every public service in the process.
“The coalition government needs to clean up Labour’s mess with sensible economic policy and restore credibility to the reserve bank.
“ACT’s coalition agreement focuses on rebuilding the economy and improving productivity. We’ve already seen the Reserve Bank return to a single focus on price stability, we’re committed to improving productivity by reducing red tape and regulation, and we’re delivering savings in the public sector by reducing the number of bureaucrats and setting expenditure reduction targets for each agency.”