What the reckless Jacinda regime bequeathed the new government.

“Big fat wake up call.” That’s how Mike Hosking described the just-released OECD ‘Economic Survey’.

This report exposes the bleak picture of our economy, government finances, lagging productivity, debt, and dismal education outcomes. I’m asking for your support so we can take on the Wellington-elite and educate the public that it’s time to ‘get real’ and face the hard facts before it’s too late.

Right now, Nicola Willis, Chris Luxon, and Cabinet are making the most important decisions about this year’s Budget. These decisions will determine the economic path New Zealand takes for at least the next decade.

Either Willis plays it “safe” and delivers, in effect, Grant Roberston’s 7th Budget – or she takes the hard (but necessary) decisions to avoid locking-in New Zealand’s economic drift and decline.

Meanwhile the Legacy media, and Wellington’s lanyard-class, continue to have meltdowns about the small measures Willis has taken so far to save money. 

But these barely touch the sides. Unless we force Wellington to face the facts and acknowledge the fiscal cliffs caused by the last Government’s reckless spending – our prosperity, relative to Australia’s, will continue to decline.

This month’s Budget is the high-water-mark of what Nicola Willis will deliver as Finance Minister. Every day that passes for a new Government makes it that much harder to make the tough decisions. That’s why I’m asking for your support and donation towards our Budget 2024 campaign.

I have two young kids and, like many New Zealanders, lie awake at night worrying about the future of our country.  Like you, I want New Zealand to be a place where our kids and grandkids choose to stay and have every opportunity we know this country is capable of offering. Only with a strong economy can we stem the tens of thousands of families deciding they are better off across the Tasman.

New Zealand chooses to be poor because successive governments have kicked hard decisions down the road. Now some National MPs are arguing Nicola Willis mustn’t ‘rock the boat’.

In short, some Nats are letting the media’s over-the-top rhetoric about small moves to cut back some bureaucrats – get in the way of the decisions needed to get Government spending back to pre-covid levels.

We must ensure that Nicola Willis doesn’t do the same, and we need to work together now before the political opportunity is lost.

We need to fight to ensure Nicola Willis does what is right, not what is easy

Here’s some facts that Chris Hipkins, Chlöe Swarbrick, and their friends in the Legacy media won’t tell you:

• As of today, your household’s share of Grant Robertson’s debt amounts to about $89,572. That number continues to rise by $39 a day for every household in the country. 
• The Government is spending so much, that despite New Zealanders paying so much more tax due to inflation dragging everyone into high tax brackets, even if the economy was booming, Treasury say that the Government would still be in deficit (i.e. borrowing).
• Even after adjusting for inflation, Government spending has increased by 45% since 2017 and is now $72,653 per year for every household in the country. 
• In just a few years, the Government will be paying more in interest than the total spend Law & Order (Police, the Courts, Justice), Transport (road building, public transport) and Communications, Security and Intelligence combined. 
• Our labour productivity growth (how much we produce for every hour worked – which ultimately drives our living standards) is one third slower than the rich-world average. Unless things change, we won’t be a rich country for much longer. And we are already seeing it in our dismal immigration flows, our Australian cousins are already leaving us in the dust.

And even with all that money, our public services are declining. Despite the OECD report calling out our failing education system, not one journalist asked Chris Hipkins (under whose leadership the decline happened) about it. Classic example of the problem…

Thank you for your support.

Jordan Williams Executive Director New Zealand Taxpayers’ Union