The government's reckless spending has fed inflation and forced another increase in the OCR:
Today's decision by the Reserve Bank to further increase interest rates, even as they forecast recession this year, will be tough news for any Kiwi with a mortgage, National's Finance spokesperson Nicola Willis says.
"This latest interest rate hike may have been avoided if the Government had been more disciplined with its own spending and done more to take pressure off inflation.
"Instead, Labour's mismanagement of the economy has delivered New Zealanders the toxic trio of high inflation, rising interest rates and looming recession.
"The Reserve Bank's Monetary Policy Committee warned everyone in February that risks to inflation from fiscal policy were 'skewed to the upside'. Since then, Grant Robertson has only poured more fuel on the fire with the RBNZ noting in today's report that 'fiscal policy is projected to add to demand over the 2023/24 fiscal year' and 'fiscal policy is projected to be less contractionary than the Committee had assumed in February.'
"It was obvious there would be costs from the rebuild of the East Coast and Hawkes' Bay. Those should have increased the pressure to find savings, particularly in the back-office bureaucracy in Wellington.
"Instead, Grant Robertson once again broke his own spending limit. It has become such a problem that Treasury was driven to comment in the Budget that '[over] the last five years, the operating Budget packages have been, on average, $0.6 billion per annum higher than the allowances signalled in the Government's Budget Policy Statement.'
"Now Kiwis are facing the consequences. Today's hike alone in interest rates means an additional $1250 a year for a family with a $500,000 mortgage.
"Kiwis deserve a government with a plan to fix the economy and get New Zealand back on track.
"National has a plan to fight inflation – we'll rein in government spending, clear out blockages in the economy, stop adding costs to business, deliver tax relief to Kiwis struggling with the cost of living, and return the Reserve Bank to having a single focus on inflation."
And now the government is wasting lots of money telling the rest of us how to save a little:
National Party campaign chairman Chris Bishop made the comments this afternoon, taking aim at the campaign, called 'Find Money in Weird Places', which was announced in Christchurch today.
Energy and Resources Minister Megan Woods launched the campaign, which also includes suggestions like washing clothes in cold water, keeping heat pumps at 21 degrees Celsius and switching off appliances at the wall.
The Government says it highlights how New Zealanders can save up to $500 on their annual power bill with "five free and easy-to-implement tips".
Woods said the ideas weren't new but were "meaningful" and could add up savings and "make a real difference".
But Bishop said Labour was "lecturing New Zealanders to turn the heating down and to have shorter showers to beat the cost-of-living crisis".
"Kiwis need some leadership not a lecture. On the same day the Reserve Bank hiked interest rates to fight Grant Robertson's wasteful spending, it's been revealed the Government will spend taxpayers' money lecturing Kiwis to turn their heat pump down and to have shorter showers.
"The Government has called its campaign 'Finding Money in Weird Places'. Clearly this campaign shows one weird place Labour could find some savings would be its own bloated bureaucracy."
Bishop said if Prime Minister Chris Hipkins "really cared" about the cost of living he would rein in the Government's "wasteful spending".
"Instead Kiwis are getting a lecture. It's arrogant and pathetic.
"It's incredible that even while Labour tells Kiwis it's not wasting a cent of taxpayers' money, it will spend millions on a nationwide advertising campaign telling Kiwis struggling with the cost-of-living crisis to shower less."
Bishop said National would "fix the economy" to lower the cost of living, rein in wasteful spending and "let Kiwis keep more of what they earn". . .
Telling us us how to save money with shorter showers is shades of the low pressure shower heads in the dying days of the third Clark-led Labour government.
There are far too many other high priorities to waste money this campaign.
Adding insult to injury, the government isn't even leading by example:
And it's far too easy to find government money in weird places:
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