National’s Debt Tracking To 25% More Than Labour’s Full Term - In Less Time
First, a supplement to the last article.
My back of the envelope estimates for Nicola Willis’s debt1 are as follows -
National is planning $110bn of new debt in 5 years, assuming the party didn’t remove $12.8bn from pay equity claimants, under urgency.
That’s 25% higher than the $88bn gross debt Labour incurred over two full terms (six years), which includes navigating the Covid-19 global pandemic.2
This isn’t a judgement on the debt, or merits of the respective budgets, as much as the frightening hypocrisy.
National and ACT campaign heavily - in and outside of government - against the concept of government debt, cultivating fear, and then weaponising negativity to win votes, by using lines such as “run government like a household budget” and “throwing money recklessly on the credit card” ( a highly misleading, dangerous and deceptive analogy as explained by Verity Johnson in this article)
Yet, look again - meanwhile they were utilising a 25% higher debt level than Labour’s full consecutive terms.
On top of this, National & ACT scuttled years of in progress pay equity claims, calling pay equity for hospice staff, mental health workers, aged care workers, nurses etc. just a “grievance industry”, instead of seriously addressing the undervaluation of caregivers and other female dominated industries.3
We know they did it because they wanted the money for their budget - David Seymour already ‘fessed up on that, and Willis was ecstatic for the “billions”.
Yes, Brooke Van Velden “saved” Nicola’s budget so they could fund $16m of private school funding on Seymour’s request, $200mn for Shane Jones to invest in gas fields, and an unlimited billions dollar lolly scramble for businesses - foreign and domestic.
With pay equity reform taking away ~$13bn from claimants, and returning it to Willis’s budget, they still utilise 10% more debt than Labour’s full double term debt level, in less time ($97bn).
One final note on this - it’s easy, in theory, to incur less debt.4
Do as National and their Coalition partners are doing right now:
Ignore child poverty,5 miss targets nonchalantly6. Put a fiscal cliff onto already under-resourced police, where they have to stop action on under $500 thefts (Chambers came out to say it was a misunderstanding after the political blowback, but the directive was very clear.7)
Hold the axe and stop funding school lunches from 2027, and implement new “fiscal cliffs” for what’s left of food bank funding. Then cut RNZ’s budget by ~$5m because David Seymour isn’t happy with them.
Latest school lunch saga is dead larvae in the childrens’ food after the number of official investigations in the first term matches 7 years of the prior program
Finally, in addition to neglecting mental health, close an Auckland mental health facility that treats chronically suicidal patients….(Yes, it’s real, unfortunately, and Health NZ is now “considering feedback” after media reported on it).
My point is it’s “easy” to save on debt - just don’t invest, don’t care, cut public services indiscriminately, slash DOC budget, stop investing in climate change, substantively ignore mental health, under-invest, and bring in overseas companies and private investors looking for a buck to take on everything
i.e do what National do.
Except it turns out they couldn’t even do that.
PS — They are doing all this to put opposition parties in a place where they will be called “big spenders” and “taxers” to try to salvage what National has done.