Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Oliver Hartwich: NZ Initiative Executive Director on ACT's policy manifesto

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Oliver Hartwich: NZ Initiative Executive Director on ACT's policy manifesto · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

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  Speaker 1: The ACT Party released its manifesto at the weekend saying
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  Speaker 1: it's the only party that wants to cut spending. They
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  Speaker 1: want $ 22 billion saved over four years. They want to
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  Speaker 1: take debt $ 12 billion lower than forecast by 2031. Oliver Hartwich,
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  Speaker 1: New Zealand Initiative Executive Director with me live this morning. Oliver,
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  Speaker 1: good morning.
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  Speaker 2: Morning, Ryan.
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  Speaker 1: Is this manifesto, as it reads, as sort of a
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  Speaker 1: game changer? It's going to shape up or reshape our
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  Speaker 1: country and economy?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's certainly different from what we got from the
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  Speaker 2: other parties, because ACT seems to be the only party
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  Speaker 2: that really wants to shrink the government back to the
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  Speaker 2: levels it was in 2017. I mean, all parties promise,
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  Speaker 2: of course, over the course of the coming parliament to
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  Speaker 2: reduce government debt and to actually bring us back to
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  Speaker 2: some kind of surplus. But ACT seems to be the
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  Speaker 2: party that is most radical about this and really wants
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  Speaker 2: to get us back to 2017 levels of government spending.
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  Speaker 1: Where do we rank internationally for government spending?
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  Speaker 2: We rank relatively low compared to European countries, but I mean,
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  Speaker 2: we don't want to be like European countries because they
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  Speaker 2: are all approaching bankruptcy. And we, of course, have some
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  Speaker 2: specific problems of our own in New Zealand because we
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  Speaker 2: know that every few years we have to deal with
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  Speaker 2: a disaster, a natural disaster, an earthquake, maybe in the
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  Speaker 2: future a tsunami. We need to be prepared for these disasters.
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  Speaker 2: And the only way we can be prepared for that
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  Speaker 2: is actually to get our fiscal house in order and
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  Speaker 2: to reduce government debt and government spending.
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  Speaker 1: The thing with the wasteful spending that the ACT Party
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  Speaker 1: talks about, their opponents argued that ACT has just put
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  Speaker 1: numbers on things. How do you know what is actually
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  Speaker 1: wasteful and what is not? Is there $ 22 billion of
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  Speaker 1: wasteful spending to cut?
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  Speaker 2: Well, to put it this way, I mean, in 2017,
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  Speaker 2: we had 28.5% of the GDP of all the economy
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  Speaker 2: spent by the government. The figure has gone up to
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  Speaker 2: nearly 33% over this time. And nobody would really say
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  Speaker 2: that we really feel that much better with government services.
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  Speaker 2: I think that a lot of this extra government spending
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  Speaker 2: has not resulted in actually making us feel better and
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  Speaker 2: actually delivering better services for Kiwis. And therefore, it is
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  Speaker 2: right to ask whether we couldn't achieve better results with
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  Speaker 2: lower spending.
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  Speaker 1: Do you think that message is landing with people?
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  Speaker 2: Well, it's landing with a part of the electorate, but
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  Speaker 2: I think most voters probably haven't quite realised how difficult
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  Speaker 2: our fiscal predicament really is. And by the way, it
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  Speaker 2: is not just about what's happening in the next three years.
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  Speaker 2: We all know that our population is going to age
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  Speaker 2: over the coming years. And Treasury told us that by 2065,
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  Speaker 2: if we don't change our way, we'll face 200% debt
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  Speaker 2: to GDP, which would really mean that we would be bankrupt.
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  Speaker 2: These are the levels that we last saw, for example,
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  Speaker 2: for Greece in the middle of the euro crisis.
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  Speaker 1: Oliver Hartwich, New Zealand Initiative Executive Director. Nice to have
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  Speaker 1: you on the show this morning. Thank you. For more
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to News
• 2:53
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• 2:57
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