By Alex Tarrant
It's almost like waiting for Godot.
After spending much time telling us in the run-up to the election campaign they would provide a fully costed policy manifesto, Labour has been put on the back-foot by National over spending promises and how much extra borrowing they will need to take on over the next four-five years.
National Party campaign manager Stephen Joyce has been sending out release after release detailing how much more the Nats believe Labour will have to borrow over the next four years due to its election policies - not just economic, but education, health and law & order policies too.
The latest figures from Joyce, on the owe our future website, have that sitting at NZ$17.2 billion.
Last night during The Press election debate in Christchurch, Prime Minister John Key said that figure was about NZ$14 billion. But hey, what's NZ$3.2 billion between friends?
"Show me the money," Key demanded of Goff to applause from the Christchurch audience last night. The debate was given to Key due to his 'fiscal attack' on Labour, after a close-run affair in the TVNZ debate on Sunday.
You'd think Labour would have seen this coming, and would be able to produce the figures when needed to refute Joyce's claims. Well, they knew it was coming, because they've said they will present a fully costed election manifesto.
But they're still working on the numbers. I phoned Labour finance spokesman David Cunliffe yesterday and asked if he was doing the numbers, hastily adding I was asking about the fiscal numbers, not the caucus ones.
Labour's finance team is hoping to release the costings from all its policies in the next few days. You'd think they could have started from day one, and every time they released a new policy, say what this would do to alter the fiscal requirements.
Much better than leaving Stephen Joyce to do it.
'Here it is...sort of'
UPDATE: We'll it seems the goading has worked somewhat.
Out on the campaign trail in Nelson today, Goff tried to make to refute Joyce's claims, the NZHerald online reports:
"Over the next three years the Government has projected it will be borrowing about NZ$13 billion. Under our projections we'd probably be borrowing about $15.6 billion. But we'd keep our assets," Goff said.
"We'll be showing New Zealand the money tomorrow. John Key needs to show New Zealand the jobs at the same time," he said.
(Updates with links back to The Press debate, Goff comments from Nelson)
36 Comments
Your nuts , Wolly ....... and your crackers Count ; and Gibber ... your bananas mate ! ....
Labour are gonna take the GST off all your food , guys ...... Gummy reckons that's $ 14 or even $ 17 billion very well spent .... 15 % cheaper gummi-bears , I'm all for that !
Desperate Vs Smug
Round Two...seconds out..!
Ding...!
Goff comes out swinging rather than jab n move....the occassional swing and a miss reflected when leading with the left....it's just not goofy.
John Boy's defence improves a little from round one and the darker lighting helps to hide the obvious brusing ...even adopts fixed grin ,sensing an opportunity for the upper-cut.
Goff lands a crashing right to thunderous applause and screams of " kill the bastard" from the crowd when the subject of rebuild is addressed.
John Boy feigns a stagger drawing his off-footed opponent close enough to unleash the upper-cut...boom !, show me the money..
Goff stays verticle but goes for the clinch ..... got to buy some time ,buy some time, he thinks.....swish ,show meeeeeeee the, a near miss that would have sent him to the canvass......grabs n holds on once more for time....
Ding!
John Boy smugly returns to his corner thinking he's done enough to sneak the point for round two.
Espiner......agrees!
re "Espiner agrees"-
Edited by Alex Tarrant
Hi alex, touch and go with that one - on the play the ball, not the man 'rule'. Fine if you're giving examples of why you think that, but we're not too keen on comments that just attack people with no reasoning/back-up.
You're free to say how you think someone conducted themselves during the debate, whilst giving reasons for you're thinking, but personal attacks we don't like.
Hope that sounds reasonable
Cheers
Alex
No Alex...he's just the Ref and scoring cards go back to the Ref for conclusion.
If you read round one...I called it the way I saw it....Goff snuck home in that one but did leave himself open to the upper -cut and must accept that.
It aint over yet but as the challenger he will need to look for a knockout and not leave it to a split decision....as they tend to go the way of the incumbent.
If I were Goff I'd niggle him a lot more...throw him off when he starts his whiney little stories about having had it tough in a state house and throughout whose administration did his mother afford him the education he so richly deserved....you know stuff like that...makes the punters go ...yeah how bout that then Richie Rich how bout that.
This debt blaming war brings to mind the old trading adage ' watch what they do not what they say'.
National is hardly blameless in the debt bloat stakes: publicly traded government debt issuance totals the thick end of $7.0 billion for the first 4 months of the current fiscal year.
The prior year total @~ $19.0 billion hardly reflects fiscal responsibilty, when viewed on a working person per-capita basis.
Who is kidding who?
The eurozone crisis is eroding our democracy. How do we withdraw our consent from being governed like this?
What if the sheer complexity of decisions facing national leaders in a democracy combines with greedy or ignorant or pig-headed voters to produce completely stupid results? Could autocracy plus modern IT in practice look more rational and efficient (and therefore more “moral" or at least more credible) at taking strategic decisions, such as not running up state borrowing far beyond the credible capacity of the state to repay its debts?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/charlescrawford/100115013/the-eurozon…
I can't find a political party to vote for. NZ is stuffed.
In the year to September oil imports rose 22% to $7.7 billion. Oil is costing us $1.4 billion more than a year ago.
If this price trend continues then by 2015 our annual oil import bill will soar to $17 billion and will be $11 billion more than it was in 2010. That annual extra cost will be greater than thegovernment's contribution to the Christchurch earthquake.
Source
http://oilshockhorrorprobe.blogspot.com/2011/11/huge-blowout-in-nz-oil-import-cost.html#comment-form
Sprott's Oct newsletter has this to say on oil depletion
What has been discovered and brought into production in the past few decades are smaller fields, which normally have higher decline rates. As these new smaller fields replace production from larger fields, and older larger fields age, we can expect the global observed decline rate to increase from the current estimated rate of 6.7% (or 4.7 million barrels per day annually).
Source
http://www.industrymailout.com/Industry/View.aspx?id=311141&q=374819641&qz=6df5f9
We can not rely on economic growth to get us out of debt. NZers are woefully unprepared for hard times. If this all comes to pass - and apart from wishful thinking - the numbers do seem to add up, then prepare for petrol rationing and liquid fuel diversion to the only industries keeping us afloat, milk and timber. But even that is short term.
CAGW will rightly disappear as an issue but not before more economic harm is inflicted by bonehead ETS
Unfortunately these clowns with the aid of media censorship of the facts are still in charge.For example.
http://nofrakkingconsensus.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/1989_un_grim_forecast_highlighted.jpg
Alex ...copped you on the telly this morning as I tuned in for my regular shifty at the beautiful Nadine.........I noticed you were a little stunned by her presence yourself there eh ...uh...come on matey...... or were you a little shocked when you realized she was actually standing up behind that desk....?
Still well done ...you got the face for the telly....a few pointers from the big B and you'll be the go to man.
uuuuh! must be a slow news day......see everybody's over politics already....damn....where is the fizz.
FYI from NZHerald on Labour's latest on how much more they'll borrow:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10763634
Labour leader Phil Goff has promised to show New Zealand the money tomorrow and reveal his party's fiscal plan which will involve borrowing $2.6 billion more than National over three years.
"Over the next three years the Government has projected it will be borrowing about 13 billion. Under our projections we'd probably be borrowing about $15.6 billion. But we'd keep our assets," Mr Goff said.
"We'll be showing New Zealand the money tomorrow. John Key needs to show New Zealand the jobs at the same time."
Key/ Goff - cock-a-doodle-doo - but without reading the time.
I’m wonder how much more time Labour/ National/ ACT need until they realize – ohh wow - there is a big hole in the bucket – while at the same time the stream of money is trying out.: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQqDS9wGsxQ
It will come as a big shock for all of us, to pay for the mismanagement of our country.
I'm Labour - I'm National - I'm Labour - no - I'm National, I'm Act !! I'm a Key person !! - What a stupid nation we are !!!!
It just keeps getting worse for Labour.
A Herald DigiPoll out says Labour's support has slipped over a point in the first week of the election campaign.
It's dropped to 29.1 percent, the first time it's been below 30 percent in 12 years.
National's up 0.7 points to 54.2 percent, which would give it a clear majority to govern alone.
The Greens are sitting on 10.1 per cent, its highest rating since the 2002 election campaign at the height of Corngate GM crops scandal.
If it polled that much on election night it would have 13 MPs in Parliament
Bing ! Spending new billions on new 5m and 10m springboards attached to rotten towers. We don’t have the knowledge, the skill, the expertise and the money in our beautiful, small, remote 4 million people country to even maintain our infrastructure to satisfaction. What ? - and then is a worldwide crises also !!!!!
People, wake up - stop the support of the megalomaniac crap of Goff/ Key !
"Policy, not personality"? That's fine, because my vote goes to the government that won't sell off NZ's assets.
Now I don't really care which party it is. All I care about is that NZ's assets remain NZ owned.
A "partial" asset sale is still an asset sale.
Goff lacks charisma? Key is an empty suit? Well who with a brain really cares? It's all about the policies, and if your policy is to sell off NZ's assets then you don't get my vote, no matter who you are.
Polls paint bleak picture for Labour
LABOURS DEAD, BUT WONT LIE DOWN
Two political polls show Labour's first week of election campaigning has failed to take off.
A Herald Digipoll out yesterday shows Labour's support has dropped to 29.1 percent, the first time it's been below 30 percent in that poll in 12 years.
National's up 0.7 points to 54.2 percent.
A One News Colmar Brunton Poll has National with 56 percent support, and Labour up one point to 30 percent.
Political Editor Barry Soper says the results will be very disappointing for Labour.
"Even though they said that they weren't going to concentrate on personality, they were going to concentrate on policy, it doesn't look like the policy has really worked," he says.
Barry Soper says Labour has taken the front foot when it comes to policy, but it's not resonating with the public.
"The gap really since the last election has been around 20% and now the gap is getting closer to 30% in one of the polls so it'll be very difficult for Labour," he says.
Barry Soper says Phil Goff would have been hoping for a better result, given he's released his policy to raise the eligibility age for superannuation.
"On the latest result, Labour would lose seven MPs, National would gain nine and the Greens would gain four extra MPs." herald
No option now...quick change of leadership....send Goff to the UN...put lipstick on cunny and hide Klinger King and Dyson in a shed somewhere.
Trouble for Labour is they have fallen below the 30 into the region where only losers and minor parties hang out..."who wants to vote for losers" is the thought that enters the minds of the voters.
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