Winston’s claim of $20b Budget blow out + list of National’s own budget blow outs
Public service bosses called in as Government accounts plunge deeper into the red
Former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has alleged there is a $20 billion hole in the Government’s revenue as a result of the weakening economy.
Winston says there’s a $20billion dollar budget hole and State Bosses were frantically summoned in panic – this is the same Winston who claimed Harry Tam helped COVID-infected women enter Northland from Auckland…
Winston Peters apologises to Harry Tam over Northland allegation
Former deputy prime minister Winston Peters has apologised to Mongrel Mob life member Harry Tam for incorrectly associating him with the Northland Delta outbreak.
On October 9, Peters told Newshub Nation during a live interview that Tam brought the two women at the centre of the Northland outbreak to Northland via Auckland.
Tam sent a legal letter asking for the record to be corrected and for Peters to apologise, which he has now done.
In a statement Peters said he “gave an interview to Newshub on the issue of people who had crossed the Auckland alert level 3 border improperly using essential worker credentials.
“I therefore apologise to Mr Tam for naming him as the Mongrel Mob affiliate who entered Northland with others, causing a two-week level 3 lockdown,” Peters said.
…of course there is a severe economic jolt coming, the Reserve Bank Governor has been ratcheting up interest rates and this Government has chosen to borrow to get us through Covid rather than tax the rich, so the jolt is coming, is it $20Billion?
Ask Harry Tam.
Look, if National and Winston are right and they truly have found a $20billion budget hole, how come the Market less than an hour after those statements rushed to buy Government Bonds with all the poise of meth addicts on a bender?
As Bernard Hickey devastatingly points out...
fund managers bid $1.037 billion to buy $500 million worth of Goverment bonds for an average yield of 4.80%⁴. That strong bidding kept the yield flat in secondary financial markets:
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- at the same time as a global bond selloff that saw yields on the bonds deemed the safest in the world (US Treasuries) rose 20 basis points to a record-high for 2023 of 4.19% because of actual fears of an actual fiscal deterioration in the United States;
- at a time when annual inflation in New Zealand is still reported to be 6.0%; and,
- at a time when there is a real prospect of a hung Parliament within nine weeks.
These fund managers were so keen to lend their money to an institution allegedly “in financial panic mode”⁵ that they gladly handed it over to Treasury’s Debt Management Office, knowing they were receiving a negative return after the corrosive effects of inflation on the buying power of that money. In other words, these professional investors were so confident they would get repaid and that there was no actual fiscal crisis that:
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- they were willing to essentially hand over a gift to taxpayers of the difference between the yield of 4.8% and the inflation rate;
- they were willing not to receive any compensation for the risk they took, or the time they don’t have the money; and,
- they were willing to hand that money over knowing the Treasury⁶ would come back to them next week, and the week after that, and the week after that, to borrow another $500 million per week.
That bidding yesterday included $220 million worth of bids for $75 million worth of 30 year bonds. Those fund managers were so confident about the Government’s finances they bid nearly three times the amount available, knowing they would probably be retired or dead before the Government had to repay it.
…Bernard is right. If the Corporate money men whose job it is to analyse Government economic reliability believed any truth to what is effectively gossip, there is no way you would have seen demand like that!
The people whose job it is to ascertain the worthiness of a Government’s finances didn’t believe a word of what Nicola Willis or Winston Peters were saying.
While we are considering Labour’s list of budget blow outs, let’s just all remember how bad National were at it…
…National spends big too, all Government’s do, pretending Labour is somehow worse is simply absurd.
Labour spent big to fend off a once in a century pandemic, they get cut some grace for that.
The Newsmedia should have ignored this, but they are addicted to the hunt now as we get into election year and rather than actual journalism, their newsrooms are taking news directly from social media click bait.
There is going to be a lot of this bullshit level of political journalism in NZ for the next 3 months.
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Trying to butter the country up for a massive austerity program.
Yeah, you are right millsy but we had nine years of austerity under National and we are still catching up, then we had covid, weather issues, namely flooding with erosion and then this latest cyclone. The trouble with austerity it hurts the people at the bottom mostly. And then we have inequalities.
I think we are still catching up from Ruth RIchardson’s austerity package in 1991.
I don’t see that NZ has ever really recovered from the “Richardson plague”.. We should also remember that at the same time that the pampered farmers wife was decimating the living conditions of a decent proportion of the country, Bill Birch was finally getting to bring in the bill that killed off the union movement as a viable defender of working people.. !991 was a very dark year for NZ, and it was much worse than that, as this brutal sabotage was cheered on by nearly half the country… Are we seeing yet another collective brain fart emit from the electorate? One that could well spell the end of this country as we once knew it… One that had a future worth having..
He should ask Nicola how big her hole is (she has 4 expressed kids) she might be able to enlighten him.
To be honest, I would fill it….
Gross cip.
covid is p. Dirty.
Doesn’t explain why the market has confidence in the NZ economy. It’s because finance capital is confident if not certain, that both sides iin Government are Rogernomes and let the global market set terms for NZ. That NZ has competitive advantage in producing essential food and fibres. Why? The economy is run by landowners, backed by the banks, which are being subsidised by workers falling share of income. Labour shifted a $trillion into bosses’ pockets cf $400M into workers pockets during two years of pandemic. They are confident that whichever party is in government, the capital can siphon out monopoly rent and keep workers doped on bullshit. When workers wake up to this scam they will socialise the land, the banks, and the accumulated wealth of the exploiters and put all that to work to create a society of equals who respect the nature that provides everything we need. Aotearoa won’t be autarchy but rather one socialist republics federated with many others in a new global division of labour.
They also know that the Reserve Bank will be forced to pivot, cut rates and start printing again — bailing out the insolvent debtor companies, the loan books of the banks, and the bond market.
Taxes are low, wages are low, government services are low, the unions are weak, the press are totally controlled, and there is no real political opposition outside the (U.S. dominated) Uniparty. Gilts are therefore attractive, but it’s interesting that investment in the real economy is so scarce — the economy as a whole is still stuck in a four-decade ‘doom loop’.
Why would anyone believe Winston. He can’t even lie straight in bed.
As for Shane Jones, what pompous fuckup.
Winston and Shane are close to being Laurel and Hardy. Both were very strange.
Don’t think it’s fare to include Muldoon in that list.
As he invented car less days which saved the environment.
Let’s face it Robertson/Hipkins have spent so much poorly he can’t possibly keep track of it all, not to mention out of control policy bonfires burning cash away .
Muldoon did more to decarbonise the economy than all the previous governments put together.
“ what chew talking about Willis”
Did you actually read the article? What chicken are you talking about? Clearly not the non existent “hole”
The health system is way better than it was under national. People are paying way less for health care, and our hopsitals have never had more funding.
Have you actually been to a hospital lately. Unfortunately I have and is not a pretty experience
Trevor. Government gave essential worker priority to more than sixty DJ’s, ahead of sorely needed nurses and doctors and have not said why.
No Millsy, its not and you know that is patently ridiculous. Turns out the anethesist shortage has been sorted now according to the minister. That sounded really postive until the truth came out. By doing less operations! Job done, Labour styles!
Joyce was not right about the 11 billion gap so I guess they are just allowing for the rampant inflation they expect if they take over by claiming 20 billion now.
‘Outside of Te Reo being caught rooting a donkey”
Too busy flogging dead horses for that.
Millsy, Why is the wait time to see a doctor and in A and E so long then ?
Because this is the accumulation of 9 years of Key filling the country with immigrants without putting in the infrastructure, which is finally playing out, duh.
Labours fault was not stopping immigration. When A & E was at it’s best was during covid when they closed the borders, yet the opposition was screaming for them to be open, see the irony.
Here is the financial health funding hole left by John Key labour had to fill.
Lets not forget the previous national Govts hole that Helen Clarkes govt had to fill.
NZ health funding has been systematically and Blatantly underfunded to the point it is now third world status.
By ALL national party Govts.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/171564126882442/permalink/1232042390834605/
Take note its current funding is barely above the % of funding it had in 2009.
So thanks for nothing all you national party folks should shut the hell up and stop bitching YOU created this mess going right back to 1993 and the creation of the Crown Health enterprises and the formation of Pharmac .
NOW IT HAS COME BACK TO BITE YOU FAIR SQUARE IN THE ASS.
So do not come crying in this group you cant see your GP or get seen in A+E.