No Guts No Glory

Press Release by Hon Sir Roger Douglas, ACT New Zealand
Thursday, October 29 2009

The time for tinkering around the edges is over and comprehensive action must now be taken in order to lift our economic fortunes and prevent New Zealand's downward spiral into debt, ACT New Zealand Finance Spokesman Sir Roger Douglas said today, following the release of Treasury's Long-Term Fiscal Statement.

"The Treasury's report demonstrates how close to crisis we are. If we stick to the status quo approach to Government spending that has developed over the past 13 years, New Zealand's net debt will rise from around 20 percent to over 220 percent of GDP by 2050," Sir Roger said.

"The Government schemes New Zealanders now rely on for support - such as superannuation, public health and ACC - are being exposed for what they are: giant pyramid schemes that require an ever-increasing population base to fund the growing number of claims.

"The façade is crumbling and the true costs of these schemes are being revealed. For example, 25 percent of all Government spending is on the 12 percent of the population who are 65 and over. This is set to balloon as the number of workers per superannuitant is set to decline from 4.5 today to 2.2 in 2036.

"Instead of wasting time on issues which have no long-term impact on people's lives – such as the cycleway, screening rights for the rugby world cup, or TVNZ advertisements featuring Bill English – we need to tackle the big issues. The only way to address the problem is to increase productivity in health, education, and welfare services. Unfortunately, the gutless National Party are not even willing to debate genuine reform," Sir Roger said.

ENDS

© Scoop Media