2020 Election: Paul Goldsmith leads media after admitting mistake in Nats numbers

National Party leader Judith Collins finally launched her party’s campaign today, but the breakthrough was spoiled by a Labor torpedo.

The planned launch of National’s campaign had to be canceled after the second Covid-19 outbreak emerged a few days earlier.

Collins, instead, is launching the campaign online, from Avalon Studios near Wellington.

Before Collins joined the stage, National showed a teaser-trailer, complete with an epic backing track and voiceover, for Collins with her talking about the current state of the country.

Collins called it a “bittersweet day” given that the party’s campaign launch had to be virtual.
She blamed the government for not doing enough to keep Covid-19 out of the country.

“I don’t think the enormity of what we have in front of us has yet sunk for many New Zealanders,” he said.

“The cheap morphine pump is running low and the pain is very real.”

He targeted Labor, calling its plan “short-term” and “low-value.”

“Erratic and unplanned governance and lazy incompetence by Labor are what we have come to expect.”

In the meantime, he said that a national government would leave a legacy that it will leave for the next generation is a complete upgrade of New Zealand’s transport, education and health infrastructure.

Collins scoffed at the policies he will announce this week.

“In the coming days, I will announce a policy that will do even more to help companies get out of these tough times, further boosting long-term employment.

“National will create an environment that will see New Zealand finally reach its potential as a small tech powerhouse. We will also announce a policy that will keep New Zealanders safer in the Covid-19 environment.”

It ended up going straight to the voters.

“Leading New Zealand through this deep recession will require a National Government. One that is bold, competent and decisive, not prevaricating and weak.”

The run-up took a hit after Labor’s Grant Robertson revealed a $ 4 billion hole in National’s economic plan.

National finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith put the error on his chin, saying it was “irritating,” but it didn’t mean the whole plan was flawed.

Speaking to the media ahead of the official launch of National’s campaign, Goldsmith apologized for the mistake, calling it “irritating.”

“This is an irritating bug, we lost it and our external verifier skipped it too, that’s a bug.”

He said he had apologized to leader Judith Collins.

“We make mistakes from time to time,” he said, then added that “I never pretended to be perfect.”

“These things happen, they are irritating, [but] we continue. “

The error means that National’s debt repayment plans have changed. He now plans to reduce debt to 36% of GDP by 2034, instead of the 35% he promised on Friday.

The mistake would not affect National’s plans to offer tax cuts, Goldsmith said.

This morning, Robertson accused National of failing to properly calculate the cost of its policies.

The error is related to the savings National would make by canceling its contributions to the NZ Super Fund.

National’s economic plan said eliminating these contributions would save $ 19.1 billion, but Robertson said Treasury estimates show the government would have contributed $ 15 billion during that time.

“National has used the wrong numbers,” Robertson said.

Goldsmith has admitted the error, saying the party had used figures from the original budget forecasts, rather than those from the Pre-Election Fiscal and Economic Update (Prefu).

“It changes the 15-year debt target by 1 percent,” Goldsmith said.

That 1 percent equals $ 4 billion.

He went on to point out that National’s mistake actually showed that Labor had “quietly cut the Super Fund to reduce debt, which they didn’t announce and we didn’t.”

“We are surprised, given the criticism that we have been made for suspending payments to the Super Fund.”

But speaking to the media this afternoon, Robertson said this was not good enough.

“The mistake means they have $ 4 billion less than so-called ‘savings’ to pay for their ill-thought-out plan.

“This raises the question of whether there are other errors in his plan.”

The $ 4 billion mistake comes just before National’s campaign launch in Wellington.

Party leader Judith Collins will face the media after making a policy announcement and will face questions about the mistake.