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Andrew Dickens: When you hear deficits, that means borrowing · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So the last thing I did before the White Tunging
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Day holiday was taught to Kiera macanulty about the financial
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: strife surrounding Kaying Order, and that interview has bugged me
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: ever since. The Labor Housing spokesperson denied the agency was
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: in financial difficulty. He told me that Housing New Zealand's
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: asset base was so large there was no problem borrowing
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: more money to keep its construction schedule on track. And
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: that response bugged a lot of you too. And the
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: typical thing I got on the text machine was augh
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: typical socialists, just borrow more and more to fund your
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: ideological program. But you know what, it doesn't really have
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: anything to do with your political bent, whether you're left
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: or right. It's basic fiscal management. The world is full
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: of people who have the assets to borrow whatever they like,
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: but the devil in the detail is whether they have
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: the capacity to pay it back, and increasingly as a nation,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: we don't. Yes, our debt is internationally insignificant and not
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: at an extreme level. We're not like the u U
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: or the United States, who have debt ratios over one
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: hundred percent of GDP, and we certainly not like Japan,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: who has a debt of over two hundred and fifty
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: percent of GDP, and that's a country that's stuck with
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: stagflation and has been since the nineties. But still we
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: are heavily indebted and our cash flow is poor because
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: the economy is poor. And what Karin and the Labour
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Party don't realize is that is the principal reason they
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: no longer control the Treasury benches. Sure at the last
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: election there were side shows like the gender war, of
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Maori relations and benefit levels, but at the core of
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Labour's electoral collapse was the feeling that they were not
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: fiscally prudent and that recklessness with debt was not the
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: right direction for the country. So we voted them out.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: And I think this is a lesson for the current government, who,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: for all their posturing that they are the most prudent
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: fiscal managers, are still running deficits, falling further into debt
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: and the timing of future surpluses is sliding ever further
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: into the future. Always remember this deficits mean borrowing. And
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I know and you know that New Zealanders are not
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: happy voting for anyone who commits us to that sort
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: of track. For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: Listen live to news talks it Be from five am weekdays,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio