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Labor Grant Robertson says National’s economic plan is so riddled with mistakes the party needs to break it up and start over.
The claim comes when the economist who examined National’s figures was forced to issue a statement stating that they added up, though he declined to say so. Stuff precisely how, by referring those questions to Goldsmith.
“National’s financial costs are rocketing. Every day new bugs are revealed, generating $ 8 billion in bugs, ”said Robertson.
“It’s time for Judith Collins to tell Paul Goldsmith to break the plan and start over.”
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* Goldsmith defends a “credible” financial plan; Robertson says ‘it doesn’t add up’
* Election 2020: National’s tax hole appears to double to $ 8 billion, as Paul Goldsmith denies a double-counting error.
Debbie Jamieson / Stuff
National finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith and Labor finance spokesman Grant Robertson have faced taxes from National.
Over the weekend, Goldsmith admitted that there was a $ 4.3 billion error in the way the party had calculated how much money would be saved by eliminating the New Zealand Super Fund contributions.
National had used old forecasts, postponing its figures by $ 4.3 billion. Later, they also came under fire for making the same mistake with their capital allocations, losing another $ 88 million.
The second hole
On Tuesday, Stuff revealed that the party appeared to have made another mistake, effectively raiding a fund that no longer existed.
National’s budget last Friday hit the New Zealand Upgrade Program, a $ 12 billion infrastructure scheme established by the government in January, for $ 3.9 billion.
But that fund no longer exists. The government transferred the remaining $ 4 billion of what it spent in January to another funding pool, the multi-year capital allocation, in the May budget.
The problem for National is that it has also spent the capital allocation for several years, which means that the money seems to have been counted twice.
The party said this was deliberate and denied it was double counting.
Goldsmith said it had left the New Zealand upgrade funds separate in its budget for “consistency”, even though the funding no longer exists and even though it makes other parts of its budget incorrect.
On Tuesday, National changed its mind and said it would find the missing money by raiding another fund: the National Land Transportation Fund (NLTF).
This is the NZTA fund that uses fuel taxes and road user charges to pay for highways and other transportation programs.
This fund is worth about $ 4 billion a year and governments can, if they choose, reallocate parts of that money to areas that they deem worthwhile.
But National has already raided that fund, too.
Since July, he has been saying he will reallocate $ 6.3 billion from the NLTF; it now says it will add another $ 3.9 billion to that, a fact not mentioned in any published policy.
Stuff
NZIER investigation of the national budget.
All party policy documents are “consistent” in saying that $ 6.3 billion will be reallocated from the NLTF, when in reality this is incorrect and the figure will be almost 60 percent more than that, with approximately $ 10.2 billion reallocated in the next ten years.
Point
Grant Robertson said Goldsmith was trying to “rewrite history” by changing where budget costs fell so the numbers add up.
“The nationals are chaotic and their number is a disaster. They can’t be trusted to run the economy when they can’t even get the basics right.
“[On Tuesday]Instead of acknowledging his latest mistake, Paul Goldsmith tried to rewrite history instead of rewriting his budget, ”said Robertson.
On Wednesday, the economic consultancy NZIER issued a statement supporting the figures saying that “there was no double counting.”
But Peter Wilson, the economist who examined the budget, did not endorse any specific budget figures, referring the “details” to Paul Goldsmith.
“We don’t think there is a double counting,” Wilson said.
Despite this, Wilson couldn’t say how much money would be reallocated from the National Land Transportation Fund to make the numbers add up.
He said he hadn’t seen any details of what National would reallocate from within the fund, as NZIER was only required to look at the top-level numbers.
“We have not seen this as a problem because what we were asked to do is look at the bottom line and the tax consequences, not the individual labels,” he said.
Wilson’s statement on Friday, released to accompany National’s budget, said there would be $ 6.3 billion in funds reallocated from the NLTF; Wilson did not say if this number was wrong, and it should be increased to $ 10.2 billion to include money from New Zealand’s upgrade program.
Ross Giblin / Stuff
Paul Goldsmith accepted the first budget hole, but has denied the second.
“Our statement stands, we do not believe there is a double counting.”
Wilson was asked three times to indicate how much money would be reallocated from the NLTF; refused to give a number.
“It is what the declaration of the National Party has issued.”
The National Party has not yet issued a statement clarifying how much money would be reallocated from the Fund. Party policy and the fiscal plan, both still on the party’s website, say the reallocations will be $ 6.3 billion.
But an email to Stuff says an additional $ 3.9 billion would be found in the NLTF, meaning up to $ 10.2 billion would be reallocated, although there is no public statement on that.
“The plan is the plan, if you want to go into detail, I would recommend Paul Goldsmith,” Wilson said.
When asked to comment on how the National Party budget was fully funded, Wilson said that “we are referring details to answer that question to the National Party.”
“We are referring details to answer that question to the National Party so that you get your answer from them because they are the people who are answering those questions.”
Last Friday, Wilson’s statement accompanying the national fiscal plan said there would be $ 6.3 billion in reallocations from the NLTF; It now appears to be wrong, and those reallocations could add up to as much as $ 10 billion.
It also disagrees with Wilson and the National Party with a statement in National’s Fiscal Plan that says the party will shelve its capital spending program by “reprioritizing existing funds within the National Ground Transportation Program and using funds not allocated within the New Zealand Breeding Program. “
When asked if he expressed concern with this statement in National’s budget, particularly since funding for the New Zealand Upgrade Program was no more, he said he did not see it as a problem.
“We have not seen this as a problem because what we have been asked to look at is the bottom line and the tax consequences and not the labels,” Wilson said.
National plan
National has now admitted that this statement of its budget is incorrect: there will be no reprioritization of New Zealand’s upgrade program because it no longer exists.
STUFF
Judith Collins speaks to reporters after the first televised election debate of 2020.
It is consistent with the party’s previous transportation policy, but only in the sense that both are incorrect.
National has yet to publish a policy document explaining the Party’s decision to absorb NZ Upgrade funds into the NLTF; the first time it was mentioned was when Stuff He walked over to the party for comment on Tuesday afternoon.
The Party is looking for ways to make the reprioritization of the NLTF work.
It is understood that this could include removing most of the funding for public transportation and road safety from the NLTF, and potentially funding those services through the Crown itself, although this has not been taken into account in the draft fiscal plan.
That plan also distributes the additional $ 3.9 billion of NLTF reallocations over a decade. That’s despite the draft budget saying the funds will arrive in just three years 2025-2027.
Spreading the cuts over a decade would allow the party to draw funding from different parts of the NLTF, but it would also mean that other figures in National’s fiscal plan would not add up.
The plan shows a total of $ 6.3 billion, $ 3 billion, and $ 1.3 billion spent on capital expenditures in the years 2025-2027, but those totals only add up if you include the $ 3.9 billion from the upgrade package of New Zealand.
If you absorb the $ 3.9 billion in the NLTF and distribute it over a decade, those totals would be hundreds of millions of dollars lower, while other years they would be hundreds of millions of dollars higher.
