\u201cThe definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.\u201d Edmonds said. <\/p>\n
Willis tallied Labour\u2019s promises and how much the Labour Party said they would cost. These come to $27.1b of new spending.<\/p>\n
She then added Labour\u2019s two tax changes, introducing a capital gains tax and scrapping the Investment Boost Tax credit.<\/p>\n
This comes to $8.34b in new revenue.<\/p>\n
The difference between the two numbers is the amount of spending Labour has promised but has not said how it would pay for.<\/p>\n
Willis alleges it will be made up in borrowing or hidden taxes.<\/p>\n
There are some things Labour is likely to contest. Willis has claimed the party\u2019s public transport fare cap will be funded through the core Crown balance sheet. Labour says it will fund this by reprioritising spending from the National Land Transport Fund.<\/p>\n
Willis is likely to dispute this, noting Labour is already planning to cut the revenue forecast to flow into the fund by freezing fuel taxes and road-user charges.<\/p>\n
Labour has also said it would fund some of this spending through the operating allowance \u2013 the pot of new money set aside for each Budget. There\u2019s over $21b that could be included in a fiscal plan for the next Parliament, although most is likely to be needed for funding cost pressures in health and education.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, Willis announced that National is likely to campaign on spending the bulk of these allowances on core health services.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabour\u2019s hidden bill has now hit $18.8 billion, and that money ultimately has to come from New Zealand taxpayers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt works out to $2263 in additional tax for the average Kiwi household every year,\u201d Willis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is remarkable that Labour\u2019s hidden bill has grown, even after announcing a $5.5 billion tax hike on businesses by cancelling Investment Boost.<\/p>\n
\u201cChris Hipkins has refused to tell Kiwis how he\u2019ll pay for his promises because he doesn\u2019t want them to know how much additional tax they\u2019ll have to pay,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Willis pointed to comments made on Newstalk ZB\u2019s Mike Hosking Breakfast to justify her claim that the \u201chidden bill\u201d amounted to more tax.<\/p>\n
Hipkins told Hosking he would hit surplus in line with the Government\u2019s forecasts, which suggests the only fiscal lever Labour would pull to hit surplus is additional taxation.<\/p>\n
\u201cConveniently for Chris Hipkins, his prospective coalition partners in the Greens, Te P\u0101ti M\u0101ori and Opportunity have a suite of new taxes they want to impose on New Zealanders, and he\u2019ll be able to use those to pay for his hidden bill,\u201d Willis said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabour does not have a credible economic plan. All Labour has is an irresponsible, unaffordable shopping list which will be paid for by hitting every New Zealander with a growing tax bill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Updates on the previous Hidden Bill from June, according to the National Party:<\/p>\n
Labour\u2019s growing list of promises:<\/p>\n
Freezing fuel excise duty and road user charges for three years: $3.14bSmall business package: $1.56bApprenticeship policy: $227mM\u0101ori trades training policy: $84mGraduate nurse guarantee: $526mInfrastructure programme: $795m<\/p>\n
Offset (roughly cancels out):<\/p>\n
Reversing income-related rent changes, offset by reversing Accommodation Supplement changes<\/p>\n
Added revenue:<\/p>\n
Cancelling Investment Boost: $5.55b<\/p>\n
Labour hits back<\/p>\n
Labour issued a separate attack on National, saying it had failed its economic warrant of fitness.<\/p>\n
\u201cNicola Willis told New Zealanders to judge National on the economy. Well, the results are in.<\/p>\n
\u201cPrices are up. Unemployment is up. Public services have been cut. And hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted,\u201d Edmonds said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNational promised to bring down the cost of living. Instead, it has made it worse. <\/p>\n
\u201cPrices are rising twice as fast as pay. Pay has gone up 2% while prices have gone up 4.1%. Kiwis are working hard and falling behind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201c171,000 Kiwis are unemployed, and those still in work are being squeezed by higher power bills, higher fuel costs and higher rates.<\/p>\n
\u201cPower bills are up 25% since National took office, seeing a doctor costs 21% more, and Auckland households are paying an average of $800 more towards their rates each year,\u201d Edmonds said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":616581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[303751,303750,85970,50559,23602,1975,1863,16574,8613,2741,30271,246,538,4508,6721,9093,1446,71084,111,43,139,20484,69,1118,30503,10056,84701,1361,1865,112459,810,62126,792],"class_list":["post-616580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-303751","tag-188b","tag-allegation","tag-allege","tag-amounts","tag-at","tag-back","tag-bill","tag-billion","tag-claim","tag-figures","tag-finance","tag-hidden","tag-hits","tag-labour","tag-lies","tag-making","tag-nationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nicola","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-promises","tag-repeated","tag-spokeswoman","tag-that","tag-today","tag-unfunded","tag-up","tag-updated","tag-willis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/616581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}