The government has taken steps to lift New Zealand's sustainable economic growth but catching up with Australia will be a long-term challenge, Finance Minister Bill English said today. "However the [second 2025 Taskforce] report shows just how chall
The government has taken steps to lift New Zealand's sustainable economic growth but catching up with Australia will be a long-term challenge, Finance Minister Bill English said today.
"However the [second 2025 Taskforce] report shows just how challenging it will be to catch up to Australia by 2025, especially as we continue to recover from a recession - started under Labour - that Australia never had.
Mr English said the Taskforce’s report – part of ACT's confidence and supply agreement with National - raised some interesting ideas which the government would consider.
"However we disagree with the Taskforce report's authors about the ideal speed of reform," he said.
"History shows that reforms done at breakneck speed tend to be fairly counterproductive. If you don't take the time to convince people of the benefits of change there's a good chance the next government will simply reverse them.
"We are already moving in some of the directions suggested in the report. As well as cutting personal and corporate taxes, we have put a cap on new government spending, have put better incentives into the welfare system and are reviewing major regulation.
"But any changes must meet the tests of fairness and equity, be consistent with our election promises and occur at a sustainable pace.
