Yesterday in Parliament Grant Robertson, sitting smugly like a grinning Cheshire Cat, in spite of his rejection by voters, asked National Party Finance Minister, Nic Willis, how NZ's Net Debt Position was changing. She did not have the numbers & deflected the question. (Next time she should do better). What should have been her answer? Here goes:
"Well, Mr Speaker, I am glad the worst Finance Minister in NZ's history brought up the issue of our country's net debt position. In their (thankfully) last budget in 2023 this is what Robertson & Hipkins had to say about it":
"The long-term projections of net debt .. in the Budget Update show a declining trajectory, well below the ceiling of 30% of GDP".
"However, Mr Speaker, what do NZ Treasury's Long Term Projections of net debt, reported in its most recent Long Term Fiscal Update (done in 2021 before the fiscal situation worsened & interest charges on debt rose) actually show":
"[Treasury] projections indicate the gap between expenditure & revenue will grow significantly as a result of demographic change & historical trends. This will cause net debt to increase rapidly as a share of GDP by 2060".
(see page 6 where our Net Debt Position is characterized as "unsustainable").
"Mr Speaker, the former Finance Minister says in his upside-down world that what's going up (like debt or crime) is going down, and what's going down (like NZ's economic & political standing in the world) is going up".
Meanwhile, Robertson would sit and listen, flashing his Cheshire Cat grin, next to his Jack Russell companion, Hipkins, shaking their heads in denial about how everything lays in ruins after their years of governing and now has to be rebuilt.
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