New Zealand believes Labour are better economic managers than National

mickysavage
4 years ago
Categories: business, capitalism, jacinda ardern, Judith Collins, labour, national, paul goldsmith, same old national

I was astounded when Labour scored 61% in this week’s Newshub Reid Research poll. But that astonishment was dwarfed by this result:

Neale is right. There is this constant rule throughout English speaking western democracies. The electorate always believes that tories are better with the economy. Apparently being a cheerleader for capitalism is better than being a critical manager but this is as solid a political rule as Judith Collins will engage in dirty politics.

For the first time in Aotearoa New Zealand this mantra is in tatters.

It is not hard to see why. Not only has the Government kept us safe, so far from Covid, but its quick targeted response has protected many jobs and kept many businesses afloat.

National’s response so far is to propose more roads, many more roads. And Paora Goldsmith has this utterly bonkers desire to slash spending to get debt to GDP under 30% within the next decade, if in power.

From Thomas Coughlan at Stuff:

National’s draft debt target would require it to slash government borrowing by $80 billion leading to what could be some of the harshest public service cuts seen in New Zealand history.

National finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith last week told a gathering of financial sector professionals that his party wanted to get net core Crown debt, the main way of measuring public debt, to below 30 per cent of GDP within a decade.

“Our sense is we need to demonstrate a path back below 30 per cent, in the first instance, within a decade, give or take a few years,” he said.

“It is difficult, given the extent of the global uncertainty, to plot an exact path right now. But we would commit to setting that out clearly in our first budget.”

This time last election Labour had a fully costed and worked through alternative budget. All that I have heard from National recently is crickets, and roads.

At a policy level I am not surprised that the population trust Labour more than National with the economy. But this is an unprecedented event and is why National has no chance of winning this election.