Labour, Opportunity spread misinformation on ACT’s Fiscal Plan, ignore debt elephant

“Labour and their would-be coalition partners are spreading misinformation about ACT's fully costed fiscal plan. They ignore the debt elephant in the room our fiscal plan takes on and make a mockery of their own claims to be ‘cleaning up politics',” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“Our plan reduces debt by $12.4 billion. That should be the focus for any party in this election. The Government will go broke if we don’t take action, but other parties are carrying on with he-said-she-said politics without a care in the world.

Disability funding

“First, Labour's Barbara Edmonds and Opportunity have accused ACT of wanting to cut disability entitlements.

“Our policy has nothing to do with disability funding, it is about benefits. ACT wants better management of Jobseeker benefits, particularly the growth in mental health-related claims.

“The number of people receiving Jobseeker Support on health or disability grounds has nearly doubled over the past decade, with much of that growth coming from mental health-tagged conditions.

"Either rate of mental illness in New Zealand has exploded and failed to recover since COVID, or the system is failing to get people back to work and leaving them languishing on the dole.

“What Labour is really saying is that they're comfortable seeing tens of thousands more New Zealanders in a state of learned helplessness, sleeping through the day without the purpose and social contact that comes with employment.

“ACT would require benefit checks against clear medical criteria, and we aim to return the rate of mental health-related claims towards pre-pandemic levels over four years.

“Barbara Edmonds should explain which part of that she objects to, rather than leaving New Zealanders wondering whether ACT would cut benefits that our policy doesn’t mention.

Schools and hospitals

“Second, Chris Hipkins says 'Our schools. Our hospitals. The healthcare your family needs when someone gets sick. It's all on the chopping block.

“This is, again, wrong. Our fiscal plan explicitly protects the increases in frontline health and education spending since 2017, along with Police, Defence, and the Ministry for Children. In fact, we'd increase funding for health.

“ACT’s Fiscal Plan proposes returning Government spending to its 2017 level per person, adjusted for inflation. Spending outside those protected frontline services has grown by 20 per cent per person since then. Does anyone seriously believe New Zealanders are getting 20 per cent better services?

“ACT will cut waste elsewhere so we can afford better healthcare and education. Our plan includes expanded access to care through pharmacists and funding for practical education initiatives.

Carbon Tax Refund

“Third, Opportunity leader Qiulae Wong has said we can't give Kiwis a Carbon Tax Refund, because there hasn't been any revenue from the Government's failed carbon auctions.

“She hasn't read our policy. The auctions have failed because the Government has refused to sell carbon credits at the market price. Our policy would change that to sell at the market price, but Opportunity, who claim to be evidence based, policy nerds, clearly didn’t read the following from our Climate Policy.

‘ACT will remove the Government’s artificial carbon price floor and allow auctions to clear at a lower price.

“The projected revenue is included in our published fiscal plan. The mechanism and the assumptions are there for anyone bothered to look.

"Opportunity's lazy potshots show that their carping on about cleaning up politics is just marketing bluster. Every week, the Party promising to be different looks as lazy, cynical and political as the worst.

“ACT released a fully costed plan because New Zealanders deserve to know how political parties intend to pay for their promises. We've set out where we would save money, which services we would protect, and how we would return more money to households.”