The Alliance Party says National’s Budget
Responsibility Rules simply repackage fiscal targets the
Government has already published.
“All three goals
are already on Treasury’s books,” Alliance leader Victor
Billot says.
Budget 2026 forecasts an OBEGALx surplus
in 2028/29 and core Crown spending falling to 30.3 percent
of GDP by 2029/30.
Net core Crown debt is forecast to
decline to 44.4 percent of GDP in 2029/30.
National
has set no date for getting debt below 40
percent.
“A target with no date is not a rule. It is
a vibe.”
Mr Billot says National has announced the
shape of its campaign argument without publishing the policy
choices needed to meet its targets.
“The Government
has told us what the argument will be, then asked everyone
else to publish their numbers first.”
National’s
preferred surplus measure, OBEGALx, excludes ACC revenue and
expenditure.
“Changing the headline measure does not
improve the underlying position, repair infrastructure or
staff a hospital.”
Mr Billot says pushing core Crown
spending towards 30 percent of GDP, while the population
ages and infrastructure costs mount, means cuts elsewhere,
whatever language National uses.
“Sewage is running
into our harbours. Wastewater plants are operating on
expired consents. Hospitals are short-staffed and emergency
departments are full. That backlog was created by forty
years of governments treating spending restraint as an
achievement in itself.”
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He says costs do not
disappear when they are squeezed out of the Crown accounts.
They reappear as higher rates, prescription charges, road
user charges, and repair bills that arrive later and
larger.
“You can make the books look tidy by
refusing to fix the pipe. The pipe still
bursts.”
The rules also say nothing about employment
or New Zealand’s productive capacity.
One of the
National-led Government’s first legislative acts in
December 2023 was removing maximum sustainable employment
from the Reserve Bank’s objectives, leaving price
stability as its sole monetary-policy objective.
The
Alliance would restore the employment objective and add a
mandate to support productive capacity. It would use
financial regulation to discourage speculative lending and
support manufacturing, clean technology and regional
industry.
“A bank should find it cheaper to finance
a factory than a fifth rental property. Fiscal rules alone
will not fix incentives that favour speculation over
production.”
Mr Billot says New Zealand’s fiscal
debate must also address revenue.
“New Zealand has
no comprehensive tax on wealth or capital gains. Instead,
the system relies heavily on taxing wages and
consumption.”
The Alliance is campaigning for a
comprehensive wealth tax, capital gains tax and financial
transactions tax to fund public ownership, state housing and
infrastructure investment through KiwiWorks, a Ministry of
Works for the 21st Century.
“We will not sign up to
rules designed to make another round of cuts sound
responsible.”
“Set a rule for reducing child
poverty. Set a rule for cutting surgical waiting lists.
Those numbers measure whether a government is doing its
job.”
