20 April 2005

Cullen Hoist With His Own Petard

Rt Hon Winston Peters says that months of Michael Cullen misinterpreting New Zealand’s true international ranking in income per capita has now been exposed as the fabric of deceit it always was. Mr Peters was responding to the release of the World Bank’s 2005 indicators which shows that in Gross National Income per capita New Zealand was ranked at 40th. On a purchasing power parity basis we rank 36th.

“The true reality of these results is that we are now lingering at the levels occupied by former communist and third world nations.

“No amount of duplicitous doublespeak by the Finance Minister can hide that fact. We simply don’t stack up to other developed nations the way we used to.

“The sad thing is that this government has put more energy into trying to conceal these facts rather than trying to arrest the slide. The $12 billion plus annually which we loose to overseas investors and more than a decade of failed immigration policies, which have distorted local markets, are finally beginning to bite.

“Only New Zealand First offers an economic future which will redress the imbalance of foreign ownership and a consumption driven economy fuelled by inflated immigration,” concluded Mr Peters.

ENDS

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