No way we’re getting to the surplus we expected in 2028. That is now so far away it’s not even in Treasury’s forecast period anymore.
It’s some time, who knows when, in the 2030's.
We’ll have to borrow another $20b in debt to tide us over for the next four years. That’ll push our interest payments over $10b every year.
So we’ll be spending more on our debt interest than we spend on Defence, Corrections, Police, and Customs combined.
Now, this is not the current Government's fault. This is a recession caused by Adrian Orr and the Reserve Bank to deal with Labour’s overspending.
But National are not doing what they need to.
They need to be cutting way harder than they are.
There is a measure we use to look at how much the Government is adding to, or reducing from, economic growth.
It’s called public consumption.
They were supposed to cut that by 1.4% this year. They cut it by 0.2%.
That’s basically no cut.
Next year it's supposed to cut by 2.2%. Now, it's by another 0.2%, which is to say they’re actually not cutting much at all.
We still pay the wages of 14,000 more public servants than we did in 2018. They’ve only cut one public agency, which is the Productivity Commission.
Nicola Willis spent more in her last budget than Grant Robertson ever did.
National keeps saying they can’t cut more because they don’t want austerity, but we are so far from austerity it’s not funny.
We are spending more and hiring more public servants than five years ago.
The trouble with that is we’re in a recession, which we weren’t five years ago.
National needs to treat this like the economic trainwreck it is and cut their cloth accordingly.
They might not be responsible for the mess we’re in, but they are responsible for fixing it and so far, they’re really not fixing it.
Heather du Plessis-Allan is a journalist and commentator who hosts Newstalk ZB's Drive show HERE - where this article was sourced.
11 comments:
Never do the books reveal how much per day we spend on Treaty Settlements, including taxpayer funded research. When will someone have the gumption to air the figures and put an end to the spurious claims industry?
The Climate Change Commission being completely axed would be a real Xmas present for NZ. Not reduced , Repudiated and finished with. GONE. The next useless will be? . There has to be a procession of wasteful Government Departments .
Looks like voting for National is just like voting for Labour when it comes to borrowing. In fact. it 's even worse!
Calling them Labour-lite was a mistake. They're way heavier than that.
The Left will be rubbing their hands at yet another National government that not only keeps things the same, despite promising not to, but makes them worse.
We need to make Act the major party as they’re the only ones that appear to be moderately economically literate.
You are right Heather.
Get out of the Paris agreement for a start and stop huge expenditure on net zero fraud.
If we actually needed it this is just more proof that Labour and National are just two sides of the same bent coin. The incompetence and corruption in our Parliament run very deep indeed.
In India , the debt repayment was called “The Drain”
An aptly termed handbrake on the economy.
Just think what you could do with 10 years of interest payments.
The cuts need to be far deeper and quicker or it’s NZ down “ The Drain”
I would add to Anon 6.03 am that there appears to be a lot of commercial contractual payments going towards Iwi that don't attract much media attention. For example the old Ferry contract and port redevelopment. Likewise the location of Dunedin Hospital, what sort of consultation happened there and was it costly. Then there are tales of power companies up for expensive obligations.
With the limits to growth inexorably working away in the World, our politicians who still think we can grow our way out of the pooh are totally deluded. The old paradigms and 'normal' behaviours of economies will gradually prove to be ineffectual as this new reality sets in and overshoot leads to an eventual collapse of production and living standards. A very hard lesson on survivability is inevitable. People talk of soft landings and hitting the bottom of the curve, how we deal with it carrying on its downward path after that 'bottom' is the billion dollar question. Personally and for the sake of New Zealand as a whole, getting us as close as possible to a soft-ish landing will require an urgent, complete shut down of the Maori elite gravy train with a sudden end to all further claims and settlements. It will also require a calculated approach to looking after ourselves when our 'energy slaves' in the form of fossil fuel start to take a long holiday. Our fiat currency is tanking, cost of living is rising and any incumbent government will no doubt bear the blame, so they need to stop the self inflicted haemorrhaging of the NZ economy. However, this downward trajectory is beyond the control of our politicians who continue to emulate King Canute in trying to control the tide. National will fail in this endeavour and likely open the door to our other brilliant fiscal managers who also don't have a Scooby Doo (clue).
Start taxing the iwi corporations
and back-date it a number of years!
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