PM blames Labour for recession

Scathing view of previous government

The Prime Minister has laid the blame for New Zealand’s recession on the previous Labour Government, saying they should stay out of power for a generation.

Christopher Luxon spoke at the opening of a new farm machinery warehouse in South Auckland yesterday, where he reflected on his coalition Government’s first 100 days in office and outlined the road ahead.

Stats NZ yesterday revealed the country had entered recession with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) falling 0.1 per cent in the December quarter compared with the September quarter.

Economists traditionally define a recession as two successive quarters in which the economy contracts.

The economy shrank despite record migration levels and population growth. GDP per capita fell 0.7 per cent in the last three months of the year, Stats NZ said.

Real gross national disposable income fell 1.4 per cent.

Of the prospect of the public voting in a Labour Government again, Luxon said “you shouldn’t do so for a generation”.

The National-led Government’s budget would balance “a number of things”, Luxon said, saying a culture of fiscal discipline would be built through multiple budgets.

The PM also addressed the hundreds of roles to be cut across the Ministry for Primary Industries and Ministry of Health.

Luxon said many roles being cut were already vacant and pivoted to talking about the increased number of staff within the public service hired under Labour.

Act leader David Seymour had said the job cuts were “good”, but the PM would not be drawn on whether he agreed with those comments.

On reports of a foreign agency running a spy operation out of New Zealand’s Government Communications Security Bureau for years without the government knowing, Luxon said that was a historical event. He said the Government was in a good space with Minister Judith Collins in charge of GCSB.

Luxon said central and local government needed to work together on infrastructure for the next decade so that planning could last beyond political

cycles. Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown has regularly commented on how Wellington needed to let Auckland make its own decisions.

The PM went on to say the previous Government had been “at war with farmers”.

“What I’d say to you is, you’re not villains. We want to back farmers big time. There’s nothing more economically important to us.”