Labour’s budget lifts ‘lives of all’
Labour has run its numbers and opened its books, promising multibillion-dollar injections into health and education.
If elected, Labour leader Andrew Little said he would pump $8b more over four years into health and $4b into education, all the while maintaining surpluses of more than $4b.
The party released its fiscal plan at an event held in Wellington’s Kilbirnie Medical Centre. It provides the broad-brush numbers of what Labour would spend in key social areas, of health, education and housing.
National has already come down on Labour’s figures, saying the numbers didn’t match the party’s rhetoric, and it was a plan to ‘‘spend more’’ while ‘‘getting less’’.
Labour’s plan has been independently vetted by economic consultancy firm Berl, which has certified the policy plans would stick within Labour’s own budget responsibility plan, which it signed jointly with the Green Party.
Labour claimed the Government had underfunded health to the tune of $2.7b over the past nine years. Labour’s promise would add $8b on top of what the Government had already allocated.
‘‘Labour’s Fiscal Plan prioritises new investment in housing, health, education, and infrastructure. Our plan will boost the incomes for low and middle income families, create opportunities for our young people, and improve the lives of all,’’ Little said.
Labour finance spokesman Grant Robertson said: ‘‘Our fiscal plan shows New Zealanders that we will make the investments required to rebuild our core public services, reduce inequality and poverty and invest for the longterm benefit of New Zealand, while also responsibly managing our country’s finances.’’
Labour had already announced $5b more for a families package through Working for Families – that included the Best Start programme for newborns and a Winter Energy Payment. It includes resuming payments to the Super fund, starting with $500m next year. Labour had also promised 1000 extra police, costing $40m in the first year, rising by $1m each year after.
Labour has also budgeted $2b to kickstart its Kiwibuild housing programme – that promises to build 10,000 new affordable houses a year, for 10 years, to be on-sold to first-home buyers.
The injections into health and education will be among their most widely scrutinised policies.
The policy document only provides overall investment figures, but says the extra health money would go to ‘‘mental health services, more affordable primary care, providing more operations and the latest medicines’’.
Its education funding would cover the cost of alreadyannounced big-ticket items like the party’s policy to allow three years free tertiary education or training.
But Finance Minister and National campaign chair Steven Joyce said the plan was a ‘‘classic Labour tax and spend’’.
‘‘The Labour Party’s fiscal policy reveals they want to borrow $7.2b more than the Government over the next four years while still cancelling tax threshold changes for low and middle income earners,’’ he said.
‘‘But this is the wrong time to be building up debt. We need to be reducing debt now to be ready for the next rainy day.’’
Under Labour’s memorandum of understanding to work with the Greens during the election campaign period, the two parties have also jointly signed up to a selfimposed document laying out some budget responsibility rules.
The MOU requires both parties to agree to maintain operating surpluses, reduce debt to 20 per cent within five years and keep Government spending to 30 per cent of GDP.