Ruth Richardson and the Taxpayers’ Union are concerned about New Zealand’s long-term economic security.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are on a faster track back to surplus than many of the countries we compare ourselves to. You know, Australia isn\u2019t forecasting a surplus at any point in the future,\u201d Willis says. \u201cCanada, the UK, and others are not on anywhere near as fast a track back to balanced books as we are. So in that relative global sense, we are okay placed right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI continue to believe it\u2019s really important that we get the books back in balance and bend that debt curve down.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not universally politically agreed, by the way,\u201d she says, adding a reminder that the opposition parties do still present her fiscal approach as severe and conservative.<\/p>\n
We do need buffers for future shocks, she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe tight operating allowances that we\u2019ve had in our Budgets and that we\u2019re forecasting for the future involve real restraint and trade-offs. They are far smaller operating allowances than the previous Government had.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy critics on the right are really great at the headline of: we should cut spending. If I could do that tomorrow in a painless way, I\u2019d be 100% there. But actually, trade-offs [are] required.\u201d<\/p>\n
More extreme saving would not be good for the economy or New Zealanders \u201cin the short, medium, or long run\u201d, she says.<\/p>\n
By way of example, Willis points to a part of the Taxpayers\u2019 Union manifesto which advocates for the removal of all Working for Families tax credits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat would mean that 330,000 low-income New Zealand families with young kids would be, on average, $180 a week worse off,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea of turning around to New Zealand right now and saying, the thing that\u2019s required for our economy is that I slash the incomes of some of our lowest-income parents … that, to me, is not a sensible course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Willis says she is always open to ideas for making greater savings.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut please set out for me what those plans are and what they add up to. You get the people who say: You should be getting rid of the Ministry for Women\u2019s Affairs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s $12 million. Yeah. We\u2019re talking about multibillion-dollar challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, the Government needs to be up for ongoing efficiency, ongoing savings, and we are. But the course that we have projected is one in which there aren\u2019t unnecessary levels of human cruelty.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Treasury delivered an ugly update<\/a> to the Crown accounts, full of debt and deficit numbers to bolster fiscally conservative critics.<\/p>\n On Thursday, Stats NZ released better-than-expected GDP<\/a> growth figures that have been widely celebrated as a sign that the economy is back in recovery.<\/p>\n How are ordinary New Zealanders supposed to interpret the whipsaw nature of the headlines?<\/p>\n The two releases don\u2019t really change the underlying story, she says.<\/p>\n The GDP relates to the turning of the immediate economic cycle, and the Treasury half-year economic and fiscal update (Hyefu) relates to the structural foundations of the economy.<\/p>\n \u201cThis week, what we\u2019ve seen is actually efforts to get the foundations in place,\u201d Willis says.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the data level, we are starting to see that growth coming through in a pretty broad-based way. You are seeing firms doing the things you want to see them doing for the future, investing in machinery and equipment and plant. You are seeing the construction sector, the manufacturing sector, the job-rich sectors growing.\u201d<\/p>\n That bodes well for the future in terms of job opportunities and income opportunities, which is what New Zealanders look to, she says.<\/p>\n \u201cThat will be happening in a stable inflation environment, that\u2019s very positive.\u201d<\/p>\n When you relate it back to the government books, it means we now have \u201cconditions in which we can execute the path that we\u2019ve laid out\u201d.<\/p>\n Confidence, or what the PM famously called New Zealand\u2019s mojo, is coming back, Willis says.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no doubt the business community, and particularly sectors like agriculture and manufacturing, are upbeat going into 2026, but what about younger Kiwis? They have been leaving New Zealand<\/a> in record numbers.<\/p>\n \u201cOn the Kiwis leaving thing, I really feel that very keenly,\u201d Willis says.<\/p>\n Building a country that \u201chas what it takes\u201d to keep young people here was a big part of why she went into Parliament, she says.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need good government to make sure that people want to stay here, because we are small, and we are at the bottom of the world, and we don\u2019t want this to be a country that talented, hard-working people feel they need to leave in order to live their aspirations.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat we\u2019ve seen throughout our history is that when our employment market is underperforming relative to Australia, where we go through tough economic times, you do see more people choosing to leave.<\/p>\n \u201cBut it\u2019s also been the case that as our economy recovers, more people choose to stay, which is another reason why the economy really matters.\u201d<\/p>\n Willis is optimistic that the trend has shifted. She cites the latest data from Stats NZ.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe are seeing fewer people leaving now, and to me, you know, that is because the economy\u2019s getting better. These two things are related, so we have to stick to that course of making the economy better.\u201d<\/p>\n The economy was supposed to be getting better this time last year.<\/p>\n Growth collapsed in the second quarter of this year and undermined confidence in the recovery.<\/p>\n What does she think happened?<\/p>\n \u201cI think it\u2019s that we were feeling fragile. We\u2019d only had the first beginnings of a recovery that had been very hard fought. We\u2019d come through an extremely difficult period. So it didn\u2019t take much to knock the stuffing out.\u201d<\/p>\n