Another promise the Government is doing nothing to keep

Promises of stronger growth have been seen before, but the Government isn’t doing enough to grow incomes and jobs, Labour’s Finance spokesperson David Parker says.

“John Key recently said this month’s Budget 'will show we are likely to experience reasonably robust levels of growth in 2013-14'. He is always promising next year will be better.

“In every Budget the Prime Minister says growth will pick up next year.  But the economy has hardly grown since National has been in office,” David Parker said.

"Of course the Government's books will limp back to surplus but the underlying problems are not being fixed. Overseas borrowing keeps growing, the economy underperforms and more people leave because jobs and incomes are not keeping up.

"On the same day that the Prime Minister was promising more growth next year, new statistics were released showing the New Zealand economy has grown by a total of just 0.6% since National took office - an average of two tenths of a per cent each year.

“This is why families are noticing the effects in their own household budgets.

“National keeps promising things will get better, but they keep failing to deliver and ordinary New Zealanders are not financially better off.

“In 2009, after the global financial crisis hit, John Key promised the economy would be growing out of recession ‘reasonably aggressively’ by the end of 2010. National has kept making the same promise every year - telling us that the recovery was just around the corner.

“In last year’s Budget they said the Rugby World Cup and Christchurch rebuild would grow the economy faster than expected.

“Despite the one-off effect of those two factors New Zealand families know that jobs and incomes are not growing fast enough.

"Now they are making the same promise once again, but National is not doing enough to grow incomes and jobs," David Parker said.