Bill English National Finance Spokesman

24 May 2001

Labour's small change Budget

A complacent Government today presented a small change Budget. A confusing bunch of small politically-driven schemes aren't going to transform the economy, National's Finance spokesman Bill English said today.

"The Government raised expectations in the business and wider community that it was committed to higher economic growth. One affordable step in that direction was to follow Australia and drop the company tax rate.

"This is the end of a week where the Government is in a mess over the Resource Management Act and launched a $200 million retrospective tax grab. The Budget didn't even mention company tax, or give any signal to the business community that it would be considered in the future.

"Instead of thinking up endless ways to spend small amounts of taxpayers' dollars for political benefit, the Government could have helped small businesses reinvest their own money in their own business.

"It's another gap the Government hasn't closed. This time it's the gap between its rhetoric and its understanding of the realities of business, investment and growth," Bill English said.

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