Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / David Seymour: ACT Leader on the state of the Government's books revealed in Treasury's Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update

Transcript

David Seymour: ACT Leader on the state of the Government's books revealed in Treasury's Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Update · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Treasury now forecasting a $ 4 billion surplus in 28-29, up
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: from 2.6.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: The last thing the country needs right now is a
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: big increase in spending, just when the economy is coming
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: right and a surplus is within touching distance.
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: David Seymour, the ACT Party leader, with us this morning. David,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: good morning. Reliable. How reliable are these numbers? You know,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: we've done about a month ago, finalised a month ago,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: we've had a bump in oil prices, we've had bond
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: markets since then.
• 0:31
  Speaker 3: Well, the document does acknowledge that they cut off their
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: forecasting about a month ago, as you say. And in
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: that time, oil prices have risen. Anyone who's been to
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: the petrol station knows that. So also, there's been quite
• 0:46
  Speaker 3: a drive on bond prices. And I think we're going
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: to be hearing a lot more about the bond markets
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: and politics in the years to come. New Zealand's 10-year
• 0:57
  Speaker 3: government bonds have been as high as 5% in the
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: last month. When Grant Robertson borrowed $ 100 billion, we were
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: paying something like $ 2. 5 billion. So paying twice the interest rate,
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: as anyone with a mortgage knows, makes a big difference.
• 1:11
  Speaker 3: The government has a mortgage too. But I'd like to
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: just zoom out a little bit. You asked how reliable
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: of a number. It's not just because of what's happened
• 1:20
  Speaker 3: in the last month. But just remember that we were
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: promised a surplus in the current financial year of $ 2 billion.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: That was in the same document before the 2023 election.
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: We were promised that debt would be $ 193 billion. Now
• 1:41
  Speaker 3: it's $ 209 billion. So what this document has told us
• 1:46
  Speaker 3: is that the surplus will be two years later than
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: we were promised last election. and debt will be $ 16
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: billion higher than were promised last election. And the current
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: promises that have just come out rely on a significant
• 2:02
  Speaker 3: reduction in government spending to get government spending under 30%
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: of GDP by the end of the decade. It's currently
• 2:12
  Speaker 3: about 32.5%. So all of this is still hopeful, and
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: I have to say, As the person in the government's
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: been saying, guys, we've got to save more money, we've
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: got to save money faster. All of this slippage is
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: in some ways of indication, but also very bad news
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: because we're going to have to work a lot harder
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: if we're going to make the numbers real this time,
• 2:38
  Speaker 3: as they did not become real over the last three years.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: Rather than just promises, David Seymour, ACT Party leader.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: to News Talk ZB from 5 a.m. weekdays or follow
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: the podcast on iHeartRadio.