Media Release
4 March 2004

“Watch My Lips” Superannuitants
- Remember 1990?

Rt Hon Winston Peters has urged New Zealanders to remember 1990 and October 1998 and treat Don Brash’s superannuation assurances with the contempt they deserve.

Mr Peters said today that in 1990 National leader Jim Bolger pledged to New Zealanders that the super surtax would be scrapped, “no ifs no buts no maybes” but the policy was abandoned after the election.

“We have an identical situation today – a National leader making statements on the hoof without releasing any details that explain how the policy will be financed.

“National have already said they will scrap the Cullen superannuation fund (which New Zealand First supported) and they are promising to cut taxes, so what savings will they make with other social policy like health and education?

“He's out there making commitments without any ability to back them up in an economic sense, and he's asking people to somehow believe he can make all this happen because he's going to ‘grow the economy’.

"His record on monetary policy when he was Reserve Bank governor actually did the very reverse and squeezed the lifeblood out of many companies!”

Mr Peters also pointed out that Don Brash had not been welcomed as the 9th ACT MP by that party because he was a firm believer in economic and social justice.

“Don’t forget that in October 1998 after New Zealand First left the coalition, National slashed superannuation. Don Brash has been very careful not to reveal his plans after year one.

“You can take a banker out of the bank, but you can never take the bank out of a banker,” warned Mr Peters.

ENDS.

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