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Andrew Dickens: Politicians do anything to get votes · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm still in slack mouth shock at Barbara Edmund's performance
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: on this program yesterday. After the release of the government's
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: books showing we're still in deficit and will be in
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: deficit longer and with every day that passes, our debt grows.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Labor was quick to say National has screwed things up
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and that we should have voted Labor onto the Treasury
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: benches because they could do things better. So I thought
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: if they thought they could do things better, they could
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: perhaps come on to the program and tell you and
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: I what should have been done. So we gave them
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the opportunity to share their superior knowledge, particularly with you
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: the voter, yesterday morning. And what did we get. Nothing
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: other than slogans in a general tone of just trust us.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Things could have been better, and we'll tell you why
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  Speaker 1: we will be better next year when the election cut
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: rolls round. And that was it. I gave specific questions
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: about spending and debt and all sorts, and she wouldn't answer. Now,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: to be fair, she did criticize National's tax cuts, and
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: that was the moving of the thresholds and reinstating the
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: rebates for lands. Now the kind of tax cuts, and
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: yet they're not, but they had the effect of reducing
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: government revenue by fourteen billion dollars. Fourteen billion that could
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: have been used to repay the debt or build infrastructure
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: if the government wanted to, or they could have just
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: blown it anyway. Fourteen billion. Now, look, the thresholds were
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: morally wrong, and I agree with resetting them. They were
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: giving government and automatic tax rise due to wage inflation.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: John Key loved it. But changing them in a time
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: of economic downturn, when your revenues reducing anyway, well that's
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: a self inflicted wound on your books, isn't it. But
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: they had promised them in the election, and at the
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: time they called them a tool against the rise and
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: the cost of living. But you know that that's kind
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: of slogan airing as well. That's no better than Barbara Edmonds.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: It was slogan to get votes. And I don't know
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: if National knew that purposely reducing their revenue was unsustainable.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Slashing their own revenue undid all the work they did
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: over the last two years cutting spending. But if they
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: did know that, that was possibly a piece of economic foolishness.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: But it was a good slogan and got them votes.
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  Speaker 1: And this is what worries me the most about this
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  Speaker 1: country and pretty much all its politicians. They will say
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  Speaker 1: anything to get votes, and they care more about keeping
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: their jobs than making the country better. For more from
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to news Talks
• 2:22
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• 2:26
  Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.