Hipkins let slip about Labourβs Covid spending on Newstalk ZB admitting the Labour Government would have gone ahead with many of its spending decisions even without the cover of the pandemic.
The Covid Royal Commission found about half of the $60 billion spent in the name of the pandemic went on unrelated programmes and projects.
Both the Royal Commission and Treasury say that spending pushed up the cost of living and government debt.
In other words, the pandemic became a convenient excuse to spend money on things Labour wanted to do anyway.
This meant that National inherited a permanent structural deficit, and increasing debt and a 1 in 30 year recession. This is not news to those that follow economics.
Now as we face a potential oil crisis due to the Iran conflict, the Government has less ability to cushion us from this global shock, because of what Hipkins did.
They promised in 2017 to keep spending below 30% of GDP. Both Labour and Greens said they would cap it at 30%.
They used the excuse of Covid-19 to load an additional $30 billion of non-covid expenditure and blew spending up to 34% of GDP.
This structurally locked in the recession, economic carnage and has left us vulnerable to future shocks and with less options to respond to the oil crisis today.
And what did we get for the $30b in pet projects thatβs crippled us the last few years and leaves us hamstrung now???
10 new hospitals? Auckland Harbour tunnels? 1000 new schools? Buggered if I know?
Can our far lefty lovers explain where the money went that has stuffed NZ up big time?
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