Imagine Chlöe Swarbrick selling NZ debt

“Imagine Chlöe Swarbrick flying to New York as Finance Minister and trying to convince the bond markets that New Zealand is a sensible place to lend money,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Chlöe has made it clear that Finance is the job she wants in a Labour-Green Government.

“Our cost of borrowing would be whacked up after about five minutes of Chlöe Swarbrick talking about her Venezuela-style plan to nationalise supermarkets. That's before she gets to her plans to spend an extra $236.7 billion over the next Parliamentary term, or her plans to punish wealth-creators with a wealth tax.

"Chris Hipkins says Barbara Edmonds will have the job instead. After Barbara’s performance with Ryan Bridge this morning, you can see why that assurance might not survive contact with coalition negotiations.

“Edmonds says she will reverse the Government’s pay equity reforms, but won’t tell taxpayers what that promise will cost. The unions, for what it's worth, expect it to cost $13 billion. Now Edmonds says she'll bury the cost inside a wider contingency and won’t tell New Zealanders the number before they vote.

“That’s a remarkable position for someone Chris Hipkins says is non-negotiably his Finance Minister. A Finance Minister who cannot hold the line on her own party’s spending is going to have an interesting time holding the line against Chlöe Swarbrick.

“The Greens aren’t shy about what they want. They want a much bigger Government, much more spending, more debt, and more taxes. Chlöe herself says she wants Finance because that’s where the power exists to ‘transform this economy’.

“A Swarbrick-led Finance portfolio sure sounds like a circus act, but it's plausible because the direction of travel is the same for Labour and the Greens. The only difference is the Greens want to travel considerably further.

“We can barely afford the fiscal status quo. We certainly can't afford Labour. How on earth would we afford the Greens?

“ACT has been pushing in the opposite direction: cut the waste and grow the country. Have the courage to find savings so that no new taxes is both possible and sustainable.

“Yesterday’s PREFU showed there is no room for complacency. Getting the books back in shape will require more spending restraint.

“ACT is campaigning to re-elect the coalition, while also making it go further and faster on the issues that matter – starting with balancing the books.”