Framed as a way to build national wealth and keep NZ assets in NZ hands, Labour\u2019s new economic policy is heavy on patriotic branding but so far short on detail, writes Catherine McGregor in today\u2019s extract from The Bulletin.<\/p>\n
To receive The Bulletin in full each weekday,\u00a0sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Labour pitches a new way to build national wealth<\/p>\n Labour has unveiled the New Zealand Future Fund, its first major policy ahead of next year\u2019s election, promising a new approach to government wealth creation. Announced by leader Chris Hipkins and finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds, the fund would be seeded with $200 million in government capital and a handful of Crown assets, with dividends reinvested to grow its value. The fund would sit alongside the New Zealand Super Fund, managed by the same Guardians but ringfenced to invest solely in domestic businesses and infrastructure.<\/p>\n Hipkins said it was time to \u201cbuild new ways of generating national wealth for the benefit of everyone\u201d, while Edmonds described it as a way to \u201cturn innovation into real businesses and real jobs here at home\u201d. The fund\u2019s assets would be protected in law from sale, and its returns \u2013 both \u201cfinancial and social\u201d \u2013 would be reinvested for long-term national benefit, the Herald\u2019s Jamie Ensor reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n Critics question clarity and credibility<\/p>\n Both commentators and political opponents were quick to note the lack of detail.\u00a0Writing for The Post<\/a>, Tom Pullar-Strecker observed that while the \u201cbuzz terms sound great \u2013 \u2018backing New Zealand\u2019s potential\u2019, \u2018building a resilient economy that works for everyone\u2019 \u2013 the rationale behind what is being proposed is harder to dissect\u201d. He also questioned why a new fund was needed when existing Crown entity NZ Growth Capital Partners already invests in local businesses. His colleague Henry Cooke noted<\/a>\u00a0\u201cThe 11-page document has one page of policy detail, one page of self-criticism, and one page that is just a photo of Chris Hipkins. If you want construction firms or other big movers in the economy to plan for your big changes, you will need to give them some actual detail.\u201d<\/p>\n The government has echoed those concerns. National\u2019s Christopher Luxon called the proposal \u201ctotally underwhelming\u201d, while Act David Seymour described it as a \u201cboondoggle proposal\u201d, warning it would drain funds from health and education without delivering measurable returns.<\/p>\n A political strategy disguised as policy?<\/p>\n According to the Herald\u2019s Jen\u00e9e Tibshraeny<\/a> (paywalled), the real purpose of the Future Fund may be political rather than economic. \u201cUnveiling a new fund, likely smaller in size than those it created in the past, isn\u2019t going to cut it,\u201d she argued. \u201cBut doing something that links investment in Kiwi business to state-owned enterprises creates an opportunity for [Labour] to attack National for its willingness, and Act for its eagerness, to sell SOEs.\u201d Without the SOE element, \u201cLabour\u2019s investment fund idea is economically uncompelling\u201d, she said.<\/p>\n Former Ardern adviser Clint Smith\u00a0made the same point in a tweet<\/a>, albeit more approvingly: \u201cNational wants to sell our assets in a 2nd term & they want talk about it as little as possible before the election. The NZ Future Fund neatly puts public assets to the fore & creates a choice: invest in them with Labour or sell them with National. No wonder Nat Ministers are annoyed.\u201d<\/p>\n Peters cries plagiarism<\/p>\n The rollout was briefly overshadowed by a furious response from Winston Peters, who accused Labour of stealing the name \u2013 and concept \u2013 of NZ First\u2019s own \u201cFuture Fund\u201d, announced last year. Hipkins brushed off the overlap, saying NZ First\u2019s plan had \u201cskipped my attention\u201d and appeared \u201cmore about creating a fund for investment in infrastructure that has overseas investors in it\u201d. Peters was unconvinced,\u00a0calling Hipkins\u2019 policy<\/a> a \u201ctry-hard Temu mail-order rip-off\u201d.<\/p>\n Subscribe to +Subscribe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Framed as a way to build national wealth and keep NZ assets in NZ hands, Labour\u2019s new economic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[68112,6721,111,43,6042,139,69,14465],"class_list":["post-90555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-infrastructure-spending","tag-labour","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-the-bulletin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90555","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=90555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}