"Well, Mr Speaker, I am glad the worst Finance Minister in NZ's history brought up the issue of our country's net debt position. In his (thankfully) last budget in 2023 this is what Robertson & Hipkins had to say about it":
"The long-term projections of net debt .. in the Budget Update show a declining trajectory, well below the ceiling of 30% of GDP".
"However, Mr Speaker, what do the NZ Treasury's 'long term projections' of our net debt, reported in it's most recent Long Term Fiscal Update in 2021 (completed before NZ's fiscal position greatly worsened & interest charges on our debt skyrocketed) actually "show":
"[Treasury] projections indicate the gap between expenditure & revenue will grow significantly as a result of demographic change & historical trends. This will cause net debt to increase rapidly as a share of GDP by 2060".
(see page 6 where our Net Debt Position is characterized as "unsustainable").
"Mr Speaker, the former Finance Minister says in his upside-down world that what's going up (like debt or crime) is going down, and what's going down (like NZ's economic & political standing in the world) is going up".
Meanwhile, Robertson would no doubt sit there maintaining his Cheshire Cat grin, next to Hipkins, his Jack Russell companion, shaking their heads in denial about how everything lays in ruins around them after their six years in government and now has to be rebuilt.
Sources:
https://budget.govt.nz/budget/2023/wellbeing/fiscal-strategy/debt-measure.htm
https://www.treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2021-09/ltfs-2021_2.pdf
Professor Robert MacCulloch holds the Matthew S. Abel Chair of Macroeconomics at Auckland University. He has previously worked at the Reserve Bank, Oxford University, and the London School of Economics. He runs the blog Down to Earth Kiwi from where this article was sourced.
3 comments:
If we had an honest and intelligent media they would have torn Robertson and his buddy Orr apart. Instead the media will turn their venom on Nichola Willis as she unearths Labour/greens crippling financial legacy.
As a first step stop all media advertising and the $55m MSM bribe fund.
so $500m saved and the idiots outs out looking for jobs. QED
Am I allowed to add the comment - that maybe National has "picked" the wrong person to be Minister of Finance?
From memory, Professor MacCulloch, Ruth Richardson would have been the person to leap to Her feet and respond in the way you 'have portrayed'- sadly Ms Willis' having had the "development period in Govt/Opposition" needs to learn to be quicker from seated to on her feet - maybe a review of Govt film footage of David Lange (in the Debating Chamber) and his ability to "rise, question, offer counter argument etc" - might be a good training tool??
My "bet" is Grant Robertson will have a "prior & upper hand" on matters Financial - and Ms Willis' will be on the "back foot"- BUT time will tell!
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