Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Barbara Edmonds: Labour's Finance Spokesperson on the state of the Government's books

Transcript

Barbara Edmonds: Labour's Finance Spokesperson on the state of the Government's books · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We've got the treasuries half year scorecard yesterday. It's not pretty.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: The government's books are worse than expected. The surplus timeline
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: has been pushed back a bit to twenty nine thirty.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: That's back a year. The deficit blows out to nearly
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: fourteen billion dollars, one point eight billion worse than back
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: in May. So Nichola worse was quick to defend herself.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: We have the receipts, and unfortunately for Labor, having opposed
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: every saving that we've delivered, they cannot take a position
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: of responsible fiscal management.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: So Labor's economics spokesperson Barbara Vans is with us.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Hello Barbara, good morning, Andrew.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: What do you say to what Nicholas said?
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: Oh, of course she's attacking Labor, and she's also attacking
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: the taxpayer union, who also said the books have gotten worse.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: The alternative is is she would have to defend her books,
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: and they have said, what can Wes already know? Christopher
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: Luxe and Nicholallis have made them color?
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: Would you have made things better?
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: Absolutely? If you looked at what we had in the
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: pre election fiscal update, we would have been in surplus
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: in twenty six twenty seven. But the books don't lie.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: I mean, ultimately, unemployment is forecast to get worse, growth
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: is weaker than expected, and food prices continue to go up,
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: you know, basics like bread is fifty three percent higher
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: over the last year.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: And what would you as a government do to actually
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: change that? Would you cut spending? How would you cut spending?
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Would you cut spending?
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Well, ultimately we told them that the tax cuts were
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: unaffordable in the twenty three election. Also, it's all about choices.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: They've decided to spend money on property speculators.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Hold on, hold you notice, bar But I said, would
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: you cut spending? And then you'd started talking about the
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: tax cuts, which is about tax We'll get onto that later.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: Would you reduce the amount that that any government, if
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: you were running it, spends.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's what the forecast did show the pre
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: food twenty twenty three. We'd also gone through a fiscal
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: consolidation as well.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, so you've met it already. Of course, the tax cuts,
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: the moving of the thresholds, you obviously would not have
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: done that, So that means you would have had higher
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: taxes than national currently has. Would you have increased taxes?
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: We would have kept on the same track that we
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: had had in twenty twenty three. That was our plan
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: back at the election. Ultimately, it all comes down to choices,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: and they've chosen to give funding to things that don't
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: help every day kiwis like with the cost of living.
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Okay, in the high food the cost of superannuation payments
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: is projected to increase from twenty four point eight billion
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: in twenty five to twenty six to thirty point nine
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: billion and twenty nine thirty. All the economists say this
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: is the biggest spending driver. Would you cut super No.
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: We've said we'd keep it at sixty five and that's
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: something that every party would need to take to the
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: election as well. New Zealanders want to be able to
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: plan for their retirement. Of course, obviously superannuation is part
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: of that house, as part of that qu we saver,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: as part of that.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Okay, Well, how about this one, Working for Families tax credits.
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: If you abolish those, you could save three billion in
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: twenty five twenty six, or nearly fifteen billion over the
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: fore cast period. So would you cut Working for Families
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: tax credits?
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: No? Because we know right now it's really difficult for
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: a lot of families and they depend on their weekly
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: working for families. Will be working for families every week.
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: Okay, So how exactly would you reduce the cost of living,
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: which is about the only measure you've seen you do
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: so far. How would you do that?
• 3:35
  Speaker 2: So we'll set out much more of our cost of
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: living plan and next year as part of the election.
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: But we're also so far already announced, for example, that
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: we would look at providing three free GP visits for
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: people coming out.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: All right, thank you, Barbara. Barbara Edmonds is Labies for
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: that spokesperson. For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: Listen live to News Talks it be from five am weekdays,
• 3:59
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