National’s Goldsmith on his $4 billion mistake
Paul Goldsmith says he was in the back of a taxi when he heard about the $4 billion mistake in National’s economic plan and he immediately went into scramble mode.
In an interview with Stuff’s election podcast, Tick. Tick, the National Party finance spokesperson admitted it was gutting when he realised what had happened.
‘‘I did not enjoy that – and only because it distracted from the message we were trying to give.
‘‘And obviously, you don’t want to give your opposition an opportunity to give you a whack, and we did.’’ Goldsmith has been under pressure since last week when Labour’s Grant Robertson highlighted the error in National’s spending plan, right before National was due to begin its campaign launch. Despite the distraction the fiscal hole created, Goldsmith said leader Judith Collins was ‘‘very good about it’’.
The initial problem revolved around National using figures from May, rather than an up-to-date Treasury forecast.
‘‘You know, look, mistakes happen. We were trying to operate at speed … our internal group did not see the difference … and our external reviewers missed it.’’
Since then, he said, he had copped a lot of flak.
‘‘I have certainly learned over the last week that I can absorb a large amount of pressure and keep going.
‘‘And, yep, it has been pretty gruelling but I have enjoyed it and I am really looking forward to the next couple of weeks.’’
During an extended interview with Tick. Tick, Goldsmith also spoke about his path into politics and his first campaign memory – the 1984 snap election when Sir Rob Muldoon’s National was defeated by David Lange’s Labour.
‘‘I was 13 years old and I thought that the end of the world was nigh.’’
He grew up inmt Roskill, Auckland, the son of a nurse and a school maths teacher, and then studied history at Auckland University. Before running for office himself, Goldsmith worked in the Beehive. It showed him that, across the board in the political scene, most people were well-meaning and wanted to do their best for the country. ‘‘Very often we disagree vehemently about the prescription that they are putting forward.
‘‘But they are good people and, having had a bit of time working for Labour, I realised that they did not actually have horns coming out of their heads and hopefully they thought the same of me.’’
- Tick. Tick: Stuff’s 2020 election podcast is hosted by Stuff journalists Adam Dudding and Eugene Bingham. Subscribe via itunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.