Labour leader Chris Hipkins has doubled down on his criticism that the Treasury engaged in guesswork in calculating the savings produced as a result of the Government’s controversial pay equity changes.
Last week, he said the pay equity figures appeared to be “made up” – a charge that led to an accusation by Act that he was in “fiscal denialism” – and today he told the Herald the Treasury was “putting a figure in the air and trying to find a number”.
The Treasury is holding firm, telling the Herald it stood by the $12.8b savings figure (over four years) which first appeared in last year’s Budget.
It added that it also stood by “the professional judgement from which it is derived”.
Who do you trust more? The professional neutral economists at Treasury or the guy whose party said they would build 100,000 homes and fell short by 98%?
Hipkins has a huge problem. He relentlessly vowed to reverse the changes to the pay equity regime that made it more affordable (and fairer), but now knows that he simply can’t produce a balanced alternative budget if he has to account for the $12.8 project cost of reversing the changes. So rather than accept fiscal reality, he is trying to simply bullsh*t it.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders
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