Hon Steven Joyce
Associate Minister of Finance
7 July 2014 Media Statement
Many questions unanswered about cost of Labour’s promises
Two and a half months out from this year’s election and already Labour cannot answer basic questions about the details
and fiscal costs of its expensive early promises, Associate Finance Minister Steven Joyce says.
“David Cunliffe, David Parker and Chris Hipkins had a ‘hey Clint’ moment on TV last night, when all three of them failed
to answer a simple question about the total cost of their grab-bag of education announcements,” Mr Joyce says.
“Labour has rejected having a Treasury analyst in its office, and it really is showing.”
Talking to media yesterday after announcing it would spend $403 million over four years to employ more teachers, neither
David Cunliffe, nor David Parker nor Chris Hipkins could do the simple maths on how much their other promises would
cost.
“That’s because their numbers don’t add up and their claims are misleading,” Mr Joyce says.
“For a start, the Government currently funds secondary schools for an average 20 students per classroom, well below
Labour’s ‘new’ target of 23 students per classroom.
“When it comes to their costings, Labour’s figures include only the cost of the extra teachers’ salaries. They need to
come clean on what the total costs would be including ACC, training, support superannuation, and all the other overheads
involved in supporting more teachers.”
Mr Joyce says this is not the first time in recent days that Labour has undercooked its costings and exaggerated its
promises to New Zealanders.
“Last week their press release clearly said they were going to end voluntary school donations – yet they put up only
half the money needed to cover existing donations and none of the school activity fees parents pay.
“And on Saturday they claimed they would provide every student between years five and 13 with a digital device worth
$600 by providing a $100 subsidy and having parents pay $3.50 a week for 18 months. This will be news to Labour, but
this adds up to only $373 per device.
“And just to top it all off, David Cunliffe yesterday confirmed he would look at buying back shares in mixed ownership
model companies – even though he’s committed to spend all the money raised by the share offer programme and then some.
“After nearly six years in opposition, Labour has learned nothing about responsible economic and fiscal management. They
really do need to start showing New Zealanders the money,” Mr Joyce says. “Labour 2014 is already starting to look a lot
like the 2011 version, only trickier.”
ENDS