All Nicola Willis is proving is she didn’t understand the budget
As Bernards Hickey devastatingly points out…
Willis has accused labour of “economic vandalism’, while Robertson described her comments as a “desperate diversion from somebody who can’t make their tax package add up”. There will now be an intense focus on December 20 to see whether her hyperbole is backed up by true surprises.
…ummmmm.
I think all Nicola is proving here is that she didn’t understand the budget, Felix Desmarais at TVNZ is highly critical of Nicola’s claims here…
Anyone would think new Finance Minister Nicola Willis is still on the opposition benches as she came out swinging on her old sparring partner Grant Robertson this afternoon.
While assured on the stage, you can tell both Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Willis are still getting a feel for the lecterns in the Beehive theatrette, where the now all-too-famous post-Cabinet press conference is held (see: countless Covid pressers).
For what power that lectern holds. What you say takes on a whole new level of prestige when you’re at that lectern — when you are the Government.
Willis used today’s opportunity to accuse the previous government of being “extremely disingenuous” with its numbers. Since her first briefing with the Treasury, Willis has hinted at there being nasty surprises in those briefings.
It had raised some eyebrows around the beltway since the Pre-Election Fiscal and Economic Update exists to prevent just that. The idea is it’s the state of the government’s books, laid bare, so everyone knows where the country is at — fiscally — before the election. Parties base their policy platforms and promises on it.
It’s also supposed to be essentially apolitical, being a Treasury, not government, update.
…the numbers were there, for Nicola to feign outrage suggests she didn’t read them, didn’t understand them or isn’t ready to be the Finance Minister yet.
This has been a worst start to any Government in modern political memory and Nicola comparing about Budget numbers that were there in the open isn’t helping.
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She (Nicotine Willis ) couldn’t even win her electoral seat she needs the boot she makes up shit and tell porkies.
Why don’t the. Media pundits read And report on the Treasurys findings around the Prefu and put all Willis bulldust blaming to rest, she should be apologizing for not doing her homework and reading the budgets properly
Yes she is either clueless or the most dishonest member in parliament. Robertson was correct in saying the prefu had been out for several months and as the then opposition finance spokesperson who spoke to the prefu why is it only now she is saying the books are worse than she thought?. Given that we can assume she read it( she only had one job) then it is clear she is lying to the public and that her tax cuts are a struggle to finance. First it was not gaining enough revenue from foreign buyers so turned to canceling a policy to fund tax cuts that kill people and now blaming the prefu for not being able to fund tax cuts. What existing policy will she cut now that will result in killing kiwis?
This is a horrific coalition, the worst in history.
This should not be at all surprising considering her woeful performance in the Queenstown finance debate during the election campaign, where her lack of knowledge, and nous, was shown up by Grant Robertson’s superior understanding of the kinetic force complexities of running the economy ….
She was left looking like an uneducated fool !
She has already dug a massive fiscal hole for herself by making ridiculous poorly costed unsustainable promises, and, i think, it’s now pretty clear to most, except the deluded, that she doesn’t have a fucking clue!!…
It’s probably once again a diversion away from her numbers not adding up in the first place. They are such idiots. They had a very plausible reason to say to the public ‘sorry but as the centre piece for tax cuts (foreign buyers) is no longer going ahead we can’t offer the tax breaks’ ( even though they are a stupid f’ing idea anyway). Unless of course this is a much easier way to water down the cuts by blaming Robertson rather than that tosser Winston Peters. Either way Willis is a liar or incompetent. My money is on the former. It’s up there with Luxon what the protests were about.
Any new government setting out to make radical change says “its worse than we thought” and “there is no alternative” to our program. All politicians are liars.
Willis and Bishop. They certainly like telling lies.
Exactly. Some people are saying she can’t add etc. I fear it’s more about her telling lies. Luxon calls it “expressing yourself incorrectly” which appears to be voodoo evangelist speak for being a bullshitter.
Robertson was a decent sports minister. That’s it. Nothing else.
No …that is incorrect…h
His management of the economy, considering he inherited a basket case, and then soon after had to manage the finances through a one in one hundred year world-wide pandemic for over 2 years, plus the ongoing effects of that, plus a continuous string of unprecedented catastrophic weather events, plus the flow on effects from the Russia Ukraine war and an energy crisis, and the largest state house build programme for decades, (because they had been largely sold off by the previous government) has been stellar..
He has been nothing short of a miracle worker and this ungrateful country doesn’t deserve him!
Well done Grant!!
Robertson took 6 years to show he was not good at balancing the books Another reason why they lost and a new broom was wanted by the voters
No Trevor it was promised tax cuts that swayed a lot of people. She is now struggling to fund those tax cuts as someone said recently if these tax cuts were self funded the state of the books don’t matter . Her display in parliament yesterday was pathetic,she was openly hostile she was allowed by the awful speaker Brownlee to make speeches instead of answering questions in fact she got away with murder. Any fool can see she is not a finance minister’s she is unfortunately a screeching fool who is seriously out of her depth