Don Brash MP
National Party Leader 8 June 2006

Cullen to blame for inflationary pressure

Finance Minister Michael Cullen should look in his own backyard for who's to blame for the inflationary pressures in the economy, says National Party Leader Don Brash.

"It is his profligate spending that's part of the reason inflation is on the rise, as the OECD said last year. More worrying still is that growth has stalled.

"Dr Cullen is deluded. He seems to believe that when Labour spends taxpayer's money it is not inflationary, but when taxpayers are allowed to keep more of their own money it is inflationary.

"No one believes him any more. He always cries poverty until election year," says Dr Brash.

"National's carefully phased tax package was costed by experts, who agreed it was affordable and added no more inflationary pressure than Labour's fiscal programme.

"Just a few weeks ago Michael Cullen was saying he wasn't ideologically opposed to tax cuts, yet today he's back to the same old tired Labour rhetoric.

"Dr Cullen might not be able to work out whether he's for or against lower taxes, but the vast majority of the taxpaying public know what they want.

"It isn't more redistribution, it's a tax system that provides opportunity for those who work hard to get ahead through their own efforts," says Dr Brash.

ENDS

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