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There were many things they could not be sure of.
None of the men vying to be the country’s next finance minister could tell voters exactly the cost of some big promises.
Neither would commit to making the median home price a specific proportion of the median salary. And no one knew if he would end up helping his children or grandchildren with a house deposit.
Labor finance spokesman Grant Robertson and National finance spokesman Paul Goldsmith clashed in Stuff’s Debate on finances, which took place on Monday night, as the elections entered their final stretch and after more than a million voters had cast their vote.
Robert Kitchin / Things
Robertson was happy to cajole Goldsmith about his plan to tackle the Maori unemployment rate.
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Robertson cajoled Goldsmith for his answer to a question about Maori unemployment and a $ 4 billion hole in his budget.
Goldsmith raised the specter that Labor is escaping public spending, adding taxes to people’s pay packages and stifling job creation.
Housing, a problem for the National Party but now also a vulnerability for Labor after its disastrous KiwiBuild policy, turned out to be a challenge for both men.
Robertson said the government could not tell the independent Reserve Bank to work to stabilize house prices or halt the rise in asset prices. And there would be no “silver bullet” to the “decades-old problem.”
Monique Ford / Stuff
Paul Goldsmith said that National focused on “stopping the waste” in public spending.
“We have to be able to build many more houses, much faster, we have to be able to use modular homes. We have to reform the RMA,” Robertson said.
“And there is also work to be done on the demand side. That is why, for example, we extended the test of the bright line after five years, which the National Party now wants to reduce to two years.”
Goldsmith said Labor had failed to make progress on housing and was only now admitting that the problem was too complicated to fix with something like KiwiBuild.
Robert Kitchin / Things
Grant Robertson and Paul Goldsmith were asked to explain what they would do if they lost their jobs.
In the midst of a housing dispute, in which Goldsmith tried to raise the land dispute in Ihumatāo, Robertson said of him: “We have done things that you never did.”
“The National Policy Statement on urban development really means that city councils have a proper plan to work on, to be able to develop sustainable cities, not sprawling ones,” Robertson said.
National has also promised a repeal of the RMA, but Goldsmith said that if Labor were allowed to do so, they would make it worse.
The key contrast between the parties’ approach to Covid-19 was highlighted by both Robertson and Goldsmith, and Stuff political editor Luke Malpass.
National favors temporary tax cuts and a loosening of labor laws, while Labor favors a more government-led approach to keeping people in jobs or preparing them for new ones.
Robert Kitchin / Things
It was a small but energetic audience watching.
Robertson tried to underline just how tight National’s planned spending envelope would be, asking Goldsmith directly how much it would allocate to health in its first budget.
Goldsmith could not say, but said the $ 800 million the party has currently allocated for its operational allocation in 2021 would be bolstered by current government “wasteful” spending that would be cut.
“If you don’t have Shane Jones in the cabinet, we are going to have a huge amount of money,” Goldsmith said, referring to New Zealand’s Cabinet Prime Minister, who has been in charge of the $ 3 billion Provincial Growth Fund.
Robertson said normal cost pressures from the health and education system would easily exceed $ 800 million, meaning Goldsmith would have to cut services.
Goldsmith said that the private sector would be the key to rebuilding Covid-19, with “New Zealanders hiring other New Zealanders” rather than being paid by the government.
The first question asked Robertson and Goldsmith, who earned $ 5,700 and $ 3,100 per week respectively, to put themselves in the shoes of someone who lost their job.
“How would you cut your fabric to fit?” Stuff asked political editor Luke Malpass.
Robertson said he was “not pretending it was easy” and that the cost of living has gone up with every government, so the Labor Party had focused on raising the incomes of the poorest, including an increase in benefit levels against the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It would be difficult, there is no question, I have a wife and four children, and the cost of living in a modern society is expensive,” said Goldsmith.
