ACT New Zealand Finance Spokesman Sir Roger Douglas today urged Finance Minister Bill English to stop simply paying lip service to New Zealand’s economic problems and start focussing on developing real solutions for the good of the country.

“When will the Minister actually front up with a coherent plan to tame the Government spending that he likes to talk about so much?” Sir Roger said.

“Mr English talks of excessive spending – a 51 percent increase in the past five years – and the harms of debt estimated to reach $30,000 for every New Zealander by 2023. But then he crows that ‘his Budget would allow for more spending than Labour’s last year’.

“This is an embarrassment – more borrow-and-spend from a Party that supposedly supports limited Government? Get real.

“Any promise of considerable new spending in this and future Budgets is really a promise for higher debt, more interest payments – and, ultimately, higher taxes.

“Government cannot borrow and spend indefinitely. There’s only one solution: cap spending at current levels, allowing increases only for inflation and population growth. No household can spend more than it earns in the long term – a lesson the Government must learn.

“Worse still, rather than cutting spending and taxes, Mr English is reneging on tax cuts and INCREASING spending. For a man who’s supposedly willing to make tough trade-offs, he’s picking the soft-options … business as usual for Government, I suppose,” Sir Roger said.