Labour’s spending spree invoiced to next generation

“Chris Hipkins is on a spending spree to buy every vote possible, but the invoice will end up with future generations,” says ACT Leader David Seymour.

“He has promised another $4.3 billion for health and education infrastructure, funded from future operating and capital allowances. Unless Labour plans to cut spending elsewhere, they will have to increase those allowances and pile more debt on Kiwi households.

“Paying down debt and returning to surplus is job number one for any Government serious about unlocking New Zealand’s potential. We pay $24.8 million a day servicing the interest on our debt. By the time you have finished reading this press release, another $50,000 will be gone. In 2018/19 it was $10.1 million a day.

“The more we borrow, the more taxpayers have to spend servicing debt instead of building the hospitals, schools and infrastructure New Zealand needs. To sustainably invest in modern public services, we need to balance the books so we can actually afford them.

“This is the back-to-the-future election for Labour. They’re promising higher taxes, higher spending, more complicated monetary policy, and empty promises that somehow it will all add up.

“New Zealand cannot afford another government that spends without thinking about the consequences. But the challenge is bigger than locking Labour out. In order to unlock New Zealand’s potential we must keep finding savings year after year by forming a government that is smaller, more efficient, and capable of balancing the books.

“ACT Ministers have driven $14 billion of savings across three Budgets, helping avoid more debt, taxes, and pressure on interest rates. That discipline has helped put the Government on a path back to surplus a year earlier, but it needs to be delivered year on year.

“If we want New Zealand to be the best little country in the world, we need a smaller, more efficient government that focuses every dollar on results. That is how we make life more affordable, rebuild trust in public services, and unlock New Zealand’s potential.”