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The error occurred after National used May’s budget figures instead of figures from last week’s Pre-Election Fiscal and Economic Update (PREFU). The Treasury revised the size of Super Fund contributions over the next decade from $ 19.1 billion to $ 14.8 billion in PREFU, a difference of $ 4.3 billion.
“As Grant Robertson kindly pointed out, we based our fiscal plan on contributions to the Super Fund based on Budget figures, and it turned out that there was a slight change with the PREFU figures,” Goldsmith told reporters Sunday.
“The upshot of which is that instead of National’s plan [of] for the net debt as a country to return to 35 percent of GDP in 2034, we will go to 36 percent of GDP. “
He said he apologized to national leader Judith Collins for the mistake.
“This is an irritating mistake, we lost it, and our external inspector also missed it and that is a mistake we made.”
“We make mistakes from time to time. This does not affect the critical nature of the tax relief that we are offering and also the ability to provide good quality public services.”
The mistake does not affect temporary tax cuts, which will cost about $ 4.7 billion. This amount will be drawn from the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund.
Robertson said the bug raises the question of whether there are more flaws in National’s plan.
“National’s proposal is not only irresponsible when New Zealand needs stability and certainty, but they are showing that they lack the experience to manage the economy. There is no longer John Key or Bill English. No one who knows how to manage a budget would have made a basic error like this “.
But Goldsmith said it’s the only mistake in the party’s plan.
“In effect, a full budget is being prepared in two days from PREFU and we got a number wrong. We acknowledged that we are basing it on budget figures, not on figures from the pre-election fiscal update.”
Robertson called National’s policy “desperate, irresponsible and unaffordable.”
“This is a moment of stability and certainty, not a policy created on the fly that doesn’t add up.”
