Key grasps the straw of summer

First it was the national cycleway, and now it is the prospect of summer that is fuelling Prime Minister John Key’s optimism for economic recovery, says Labour Finance spokesperson David Cunliffe.

"The 160,000 Kiwis who haven’t got jobs, and all the families who are struggling to make ends meet, can feel mightily relieved that ‘Smiling John’ has a sense that with summer on its way, all will start to pick up," David Cunliffe said.

David Cunliffe said John Key "threw summer into the recovery mix" yesterday when commenting on recent reports from NZIER that the recovery had stalled and Berl warning of a double dip recession.

"Those reports followed recent warnings from the International Monetary Fund that governments should not back off stimulus packages before 2011, with austerity measures and cut backs in spending, like those in New Zealand, likely to do more damage than good," David Cunliffe said.

"Presumably, according to John Key, the IMF is just talking about Europe and America, where winter is coming, while New Zealand is a different story altogether, because summer is on its way.

"John Key obviously feels better with sun on his back --- that’s why he has a holiday pad in Hawaii --- and he expects other New Zealanders to share his sense of well-being," David Cunliffe said.

"Sadly, however, there is no more evidence that summer will do the trick than there was ever evidence that the jobs summit or the cycleway would do so.

"John Key promised New Zealand would come out of the recovery aggressively, but it’s not happening. National lacks a plan to lead us out of recession, and until John Key stops looking for pick-me-ups, we are likely to stay rooted in an environment where business confidence is deteriorating.

"National’s failure to provide economic leadership means that summer is unlikely to bring salvation," David Cunliffe said. "It will just mean that more struggling Kiwis will get burned."