![\"Finance](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/4JNVN76_Image_7_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nNational finance spokesperson Nicola Willis.
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Louis Dunham\n<\/p>\n
An election-year tiff about policy spending highlights the need for an independent watchdog to weigh in on the country’s big, expensive problems, an economist says.<\/p>\n
On Sunday, National finance spokesperson Nicola Willis unleashed on Labour<\/a>, claiming the opposition was $18.2 billion short on funding for its promised policies.<\/p>\n Labour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds fired back, calling National “desperate” for producing the document it called ‘Labour’s Hidden Bill’.<\/p>\n Economist Cameron Bagrie said the argument was nothing new.<\/p>\n “We saw this in 2017, 2020, 2023… one side has a crack at the other in regards to making their numbers sort of stack up,” he said. “We’ve been here before, not surprising.”<\/p>\n All political parties partook in “promise me-nomics”, claiming they could get the books back to surplus – and all would struggle to do so, he said.<\/p>\n “You’ve got to make tough decisions and those tough decisions involve trade-offs between tax versus infrastructure versus spending cuts.<\/p>\n “There’s no easy way out, going from a large deficit back into surplus, and everybody’s promising that, the question is, how do you achieve it?”<\/p>\n Bagrie said cross-party money squabbles could be solved by an independent fiscal watchdog, separate from Treasury.<\/p>\n Both Treasury and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) suggested that measure<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Guess what, when you bring a little bit more independence into the game, the evidence, according to the OECD, is you do start to see a little bit more fiscal responsibility across the political fence,” Bagrie said.<\/p>\n \nLabour finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds. An independent body would not assess election campaign promises, he said.<\/p>\n “You’d expect [it] to be wading in pretty heavily – and a lot more active and vocal than Treasury is – on big issues such as population age, in particular, the fiscal cost,” Bagrie said, referring to superannuation.<\/p>\n “These watchdogs… they bring a lot of independence and autonomy to the table, that pours a lot more sunlight on some of these key issues.”<\/p>\n Labour comitted to pay equity<\/p>\n Edmonds told Morning Report the Labour party was committed to reinstating pay equity legislation but said the party could not give an exact cost yet.<\/p>\n “We have to see which claims have actually already been paid out and which new claims have started, because the government also says that there is still a pay equity regime.”<\/p>\n The National party said the policy would cost $10.9b over four years.<\/p>\n![\"Labour](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JNWZTJ_Image_27_jfif.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Louis Dunham\n<\/p>\n