Heather du Plessis-Allan: The Government aren't fixing our economic mess

We knew the Government books were going to be bad, but not this bad. 

No way we’re getting to the surplus we expected in 2028. That is now so far away it’s not even in Treasury’s forecast period anymore. 

It’s some time, who knows when, in the 2030's. 

We’ll have to borrow another $20b in debt to tide us over for the next four years. That’ll push our interest payments over $10b every year. 

So we’ll be spending more on our debt interest than we spend on Defence, Corrections, Police, and Customs combined. 

Now, this is not the current Government's fault. This is a recession caused by Adrian Orr and the Reserve Bank to deal with Labour’s overspending. 

But National are not doing what they need to. 

They need to be cutting way harder than they are. 

There is a measure we use to look at how much the Government is adding to, or reducing from, economic growth. 

It’s called public consumption. 

They were supposed to cut that by 1.4% this year. They cut it by 0.2%. 

That’s basically no cut. 

Next year it's supposed to cut by 2.2%. Now, it's by another 0.2%, which is to say they’re actually not cutting much at all. 

We still pay the wages of 14,000 more public servants than we did in 2018. They’ve only cut one public agency, which is the Productivity Commission. 

Nicola Willis spent more in her last budget than Grant Robertson ever did. 

National keeps saying they can’t cut more because they don’t want austerity, but we are so far from austerity it’s not funny. 

We are spending more and hiring more public servants than five years ago. 

The trouble with that is we’re in a recession, which we weren’t five years ago. 

National needs to treat this like the economic trainwreck it is and cut their cloth accordingly. 

They might not be responsible for the mess we’re in, but they are responsible for fixing it and so far, they’re really not fixing it. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
I think we knew that the government books were going

(00:01):
to be bad, right, but I don't know that we
knew that it was going to be this bad. There
is no way that we're going to get to the
surplus that we expected in twenty twenty eight. In fact,
that is now so far away it's not even in
Treasury's forecast period anymore. It'll be some time. Who knows when.
Sometime in the twenty thirties, We're going to have to
borrow another twenty billion dollars in debt to tide us
over the next four years. That's going to push our

(00:23):
interest payments over ten billion dollars every year. So we
are already spending more, will be spending even more on
our debt interest than we spend on defense, corrections, police
and customs combined every single year. Now, this is not
the current government's fault. This is caused by a recession
that was caused by Adrian Or and the Reserve Bank
to try to deal with labors over spending in the
bank zone problems, but national and not doing what they

(00:46):
need to be doing right now. I mean, these guys
need to be cutting way harder than they are right now.
There is a measure that we use to look at
how much government spending is adding to or reducing from
economic growth. It's called public consumption. Nikoliwillis was supposed to
cut public consumption by one point four percent. This year,
she cut it by zero point two percent. I mean
there's basically no cut at all. It's so close to zero.

(01:08):
Next year it was supposed to be cut by two
point two percent. It's going to be cut by another
zero point two percent. Again no cut. There is not
much being cut here. We still pay the wages of
fourteen thousand more public servants than we did in twenty eighteen.
The government has only cut one public agency, which is
the Productivity Commission. Nikola Willis spent more in her last

(01:29):
budget than Grant Robertson ever did in any of his budgets.
Now National keeps saying they have to do this, They
can't cut more because they don't want austerity. We are
so far from austerity. It's not funny. We are spending
more money. We are hiring more public servants than we
did six years ago. Now, the trouble with that is
that currently, with all this big spending, we're in a recession.
Six years ago we were not in a recession. National

(01:51):
needs to treat this like the economic train wreckord is
and cut their cloth accordingly. They might not be responsible
for the mess that we're in, but they are responsible
now for fixing it, and so far, they're not really
fixing it. For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast, listen
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