She laid the bait —releasing 'fiscal rules' her party would abide by if re-elected— and challenged Labour to do the same.
On the weekend, they took the bait and released their own 'fiscal strategy'. Which is different form their 'fiscal plan' – more on that in a second.
The problem for Labour is that its strategy reveals that it wants to do exactly the things National has been saying they want to.
Tax, borrow, and spend more.
There's a gap between what they say they're willing to spend and what they have announced they'll tax.
There are billions of dollars they want to spend that they haven't yet explained how they'll tax.
Rental interest deductibility, which they'll announce soon, won't cover the shortfall.
Which plays into National's attacks. And the entire basis of their campaign, which is that you can't trust Labour not to tax the bejeezus out of you and leave you broke.
In an election campaign, unanswered questions, the void, is filled with noise.
To be in control of a campaign, you want to be making the noise and not have others make it for you.
And to make matters worse, Labour says they won't release their fiscal plan, which is more detailed and fills in the blanks, till the PREFU. Which is a month away.
Until they front with some answers, you can't help but look at this as a successful election bait, set, trap from Nicola Willis.
Ryan Bridge is a New Zealand broadcaster who has worked on many current affairs television and radio shows. He currently hosts Newstalk ZB's Early Edition - where this article was sourced.
6 comments:
Oh nonsense. The official Treasury Long Term Fiscal Forecasts endorsed ny National's own Nicola Willis prove National will spend more, borrow more and thereby tax more unless it defaults on NZ public debt. For Ryan to be suckered by Nat election soundbites and comms should make us question his suitability as a front line (and backroom) journalist. Please study economics for a day or two at least.
Dont think most care. Vote Labour for more free stuff motivates many. People vote for whatever secure in the knowledge money will be found
Surely Robert you miss the point. The question was/is not wether National will spend more or less, the plan was to make Labour admit they will spend more than they have covered by the taxes they have so far announced, and on that level it worked.
This all relies on people actually believing anything a politician says. Labour has all this spending promised. Once in power they will just say there's less money than expected. National promise no extra taxes. Once in power they will say there's less money than expected and tax us more.
It has been a long time now that we have had a leader/party that actually followed through. It is not looking likely that any involved at present have any thoughts on changing the run of mistruths.
Oh yes, Anonymous, you are right. Labour has emerged already as a party of downright lies about its spend more, tax more, borrow more plans. Along with National, which is doing the same. Under both parties' current plans, Treasury has spelt out the spend more, borrow more, tax more trajectory to 2050. What more proof do you need? Election 2026 is being run by comms, PR, soundbite marketing folks who care not a jot about truth. They bear resemblance to a guy called Jo Goebbels, the Nazi, who said should you tell the lie enough, people will start believing it.
Anon 8.10: agree totally. Crazy overspending does not bother the average person. Freebies - this has their full attention!
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