3 months of bad books raises economic questions

The past three months of financial statements have shown National’s books were worse than expected, raising serious questions about National’s management of the economy, says Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Parker.

“In November, December and January National’s books were worse than predicted. At the same time National MPs have been hyping the economy up to the rafters.

“For the November figures Treasury said there were timing issues. They said the same for December. But the third time even Treasury admits it doesn’t know why the books are even more in the red.

“Once looks like misfortune, twice looks like carelessness. Three times sounds like mismanagement.  

“Either the much-hyped ‘rock star’ economy has already turned into a one-hit wonder or National isn’t as good at running the books as it claims to be.

“If the economy is recovering the tax take should be increasing and the deficit reducing. The opposite is happening. Serious questions need to be asked of National’s economic credibility,” David Parker says.

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