Opinion ill-informed

The race to the election has begun, with Labour kicking off its campaign in fantastic style on Sunday. During his speech, leader David Cunliffe announced a new policy ensuring free GPs visits for, among others, over 65s and pregnant women.

So it was rather disappointing to see the article in the Timaru Herald on Wednesday where Dr Paul Hansen of Otago University makes outlandish claims, and even more disappointing that the Herald has chosen to publish such an ill-informed opinion.

The professor claims the policy will come at the ‘‘cost of other health initiatives, tax reduction or retaining state-owned assets’’. Labour has already pledged an extra $1 billion dollars a year to meet the costs of inflation and population growth, to ensure that announced policy spending is guaranteed to be absolute new spending, not at the cost of other initiatives.

By tax reduction, it can only be assumed the professor means a reduction in available tax revenue for public spending, which is incorrect as introducing a capital gains tax and raising the top tax rate allows for extra spending while making our tax system fairer.

His final claim is most disappointing, as Labour has categorically ruled out asset sales and is even considering buying back those sold by the current Government.

It is ironic that this article was printed the same day that investigative journalist Nicky