Former US President once said, “It is the economy, stupid”, and never has that been truer as the Botany by-election campaign heats up.
As I campaign around this electorate, the number one issue for people is the failing economy. Every indicator is going in the wrong direction.
We have (1) rising unemployment, up from 3.6% to 6.8% under National (2) total absence of economic growth, with the economy on the verge of recession again (3) rising prices, with inflation at its highest quarterly rate in 20 years and (4) stagnant wages.
Remember the 2008 election campaign? National’s promise was to give New Zealanders a “Brighter Future”. Do these economic indicators sound at all bright to anyone?
On every measurable front, the economy is failing. My biggest concern is those economic indicators are not abstract facts. They represent real struggle and suffering for many ordinary people. Families on low and middle incomes are telling me that they have never found it so hard to make ends meet.
The worst thing is that as well as delivering a failing economy in the short-term, National has no plan for our long-term prosperity. All that we have is a re-heated 1990s style plan to sell off our publicly owned assets, and to slash government spending.
Those policies did not work then, and they won’t work now. All that they will deliver are foreign ownership of our economy, massive flows of money out of the country, low productivity and growing inequality.
Amongst National’s most short-sighted economic policies have been their cuts to KiwiSaver, the Cullen Superannuation Fund, and their decision to abolish the Research and Development Tax Credit.
Recently, Prime Minister John Key claimed that he wanted to increase “savings and investment”. Given National’s monumentally destructive policies in these areas, this is a claim of breathtaking hypocrisy.
Labour has a proud record of careful economic management. We left the books in good shape by bringing Net Crown Debt down to zero. The next Labour Government will continue to be sound managers of the economy, while assisting the productive export sector, and making the tax system fairer for ordinary people by taking the GST of fresh fruit and vegetables and making the first $5000 of income tax-free.
The Botany by-election is an opportunity to tell National that their management of the economy is not good enough.
