National’s own fiscals confirm it plans big cuts to health and education, the Green Party said today.
“National’s fiscals confirm the Green Party’s and BERL’s independent analysis that there will be sizeable cuts to health and education services,” Green Party Co-leader Russel Norman said today.
“National will be cutting the education and health budgets by $1.5 billion which is around the size it plans to allocate for tax cuts, if they ever come.
“With less than two weeks to go to the election, National has finally announced its plan and what it shows is substantial cuts to health and education.
“Slashing health and education are the last thing voters want. Polls show that even National’s supporters are against tax cuts when they are at the expense of core government services.
“National’s has said it has set aside up to $2.1 billion over the next three years for new spending for health and education. However $3.6 billion is needed over the next three years simply to maintain real spending levels in these two key areas.”
Analysis by independent economic consultancy BERL showed $3.6 billion is needed to maintain real spending over the next three years. National is only allocating $2.1 billion.
“The Green Party has released audited fiscals showing it will run bigger surpluses than National and we will pay down debt faster,” Dr Norman said.