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Labour to reveal election promise funding plan

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Fri, 04 Nov 2011 5:32a.m.

Labour will release details of its policy funding later today (AAP)

Labour will release details of its policy funding later today (AAP)

Labour will release details of its policy funding later today after being under fire from the Government for a week.

Party leader Phil Goff has been on the back foot as National piled on the pressure, saying its election promises would cost $17.2 billion, which would have to be borrowed.

During a debate on Wednesday night Prime Minister John Key challenged Mr Goff to explain how Labour would raise the money.

Mr Goff didn't respond, and "where's the money, Phil" became a campaign catchcry.

National's campaign manager Steven Joyce, who calculated the $17.2 billion, says he used standard Treasury models to figure out how much 16 promises would cost.

"Three weeks out from an election, New Zealanders will be appalled that the Labour leader doesn't know how his party will pay for its promises," he said on Thursday.

It's that sort of attack that Labour is hoping to shut down by releasing details of where the money will come from.

The announcement is scheduled for noon on Friday.

NZN

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Comments

04 Nov 2011 12:32p.m.

Steve P wrote:

Yep Yep...Yawn! more of Labours empty can bashing and something put together in a panic over night based on wishful thinking and numbers plucked from ?????? Nothing in it is concrete or can be guaranteed. This is a volitile world we live in with financial changes happening every day that can really knock a small country like ours around, so we need a Government that has its feet firmly on the ground and I'm afraid Labour has failed to install any confidence in me that they have.

04 Nov 2011 11:43a.m.

Chargone wrote:

long standing fact that neither Labour nor National can actually manage the country's finances properly... difference is that with national it ends up in the pockets of Key's rich mates and foreign investors and banks, while with labour it tends to get spent on the general public (and, when they mismanage it badly enough, the banks as well). personally i'd rather someone who actually understood what the hell they were doing, but sadly none of our available parties really do (the greens seem to be Starting to get a clue, maybe, at least if you look at their economic policy in isolation (according to their literature anyway) while NZ first seems to have accidentally stumbled into some of the measures that need to be taken in pursuit of something else, but that's it.) Fundimental issue is that NZ is currently set up primarily as a supply region for various other countries. to see any real growth that has to change. unfortunately, our government just keeps seeing the short term gains from selling more and more and more milk and thus push free trade deals with fundimentally undermine the growth cycle required to improve our situation. (if the growth cycle were properlly encouraged the cost of living in absolute terms would go up, but in percentage of income terms would go Down. all that is requried is properly employed import tariffs.)

04 Nov 2011 11:15a.m.

john wrote:

so, just came back from town, Timaru. Outside the Shell/Burger King is a labour supporter, dressed in labour clothes, balloons, collecting money for their campaign. Why would anyone vote in a party who is pan-handling for campaign money in the campaign, obviously cannot even run their own party finances. Interesting Mark, the pension fund has lost considerable money recently, I blame the way it was set up, it should of been investing in NZ not legally blocked from it by labour.

04 Nov 2011 11:07a.m.

Jason wrote:

Good points Mark, but keep in mind that figure of $17.2B is a National Party estimate from Steven Joyce. National will over-estimate the cost of Labour's promises to scare voters away, while Labour on the other hand will paint a better than best case forcast for how much money they will be able to generate. In the end the real figures will be somewhere in the middle and we certainly won't end up $15B in debt... and just remember there is plenty of fat in the NZ budget that could be cut if politicians simply stopped promising to resign if they ever cut something that needed to be cut.

04 Nov 2011 09:52a.m.

Sam wrote:

If Key was worried about ending up like Greece do u think handing out Tax cuts to the rich and blowing a billion each year?

04 Nov 2011 08:54a.m.

Mark wrote:

I’ve seen reports in the Press this morning that when Labour releases its spending and funding schedule this morning they are claiming $7.6B of increase in value of $6B in Super Fund contributions as income.

Apart from the fact that a 7.6B return on $6B in four years is something fanciful like a 30% annual return, and that’s if you put all the 6B in from the start, isn’t that an unrealized gain?

Maybe I’m not understanding how it works. Fair enough to include it in the books as an unrealized gain but that means you don’t have that amount of cashflow to cover your spending. You still have to borrow that amount don’t you? Unless they plan on cashing up their investment.

Are Labour walking into a huge trap here or is there something I’m not seeing?

I am genuinely concerned if they got in we would end up with 15B more debt and be in big trouble and end up like Greece with Phil the Greek.