Planet Joyce glosses over Treasury stats

Steven Joyce's growth plan has been reduced to hoping Treasury are wrong instead of mucking in and working with businesses and workers to get the economy moving, says Labour’s Economic Development spokesperson David Cunliffe.

“Steven Joyce appears to have abandoned his six-month-old Business Growth Agenda. There was supposed to be a glorious roll-out of six reports but that’s stalled. All he can say today about Treasury’s growth prediction is, ‘We can only hope they continue to get their numbers wrong’.

“However his own ministry has been even more pessimistic than Treasury, forecasting higher unemployment in March 2013/2014.

“Steven Joyce is constructing an alternative reality where Treasury and MoBIE are wrong and the New Zealand economy is doing well. What Planet is he on?

“On Planet Joyce it’s all about ‘optics’ and glossies not the facts that the Government’s own departments produce.

“On Planet Joyce no one is unemployed, poor economic forecasts are always wrong, government should do nothing, anyone who disagrees with him is a snake-oil salesman and releasing a couple of half-baked glossy brochures is a growth plan.

“On Planet Joyce manufacturers are ‘doing very well’ even though Treasury says they’ve ‘lost momentum’.

“In the real world unemployment is increasing, Kiwis are leaving in record numbers for Australia, entire communities are fearing for their future as industries shut down and successful Kiwi companies are being sold offshore.

“On Planet Joyce anyone trying to actively promote growth is a ‘voodoo economist’.

“In the real world the IMF, OECD and Nobel laureates like Joseph Stiglitz all say that governments must be active to get their economies out of this slump.

“What parts of Kawerau, Bluff, Huntly, Greymouth, South Auckland and the Hutt Valley has he not been to lately? That’s the real world.

“Get back in the real world Steven Joyce; we are going to need more than hope to get us through.”