Nats' election promises soak up 11% of projected operating allowances

The National Party says its $1.98 billion of election promises fall "well within the parameters" of the projected $17.34 billion for new spending and won't dent plans to aggressively lower the government's net debt.

National's suite of 16 policy announcements on the campaign trail to date are projected to add about half a billion dollars a year to the government's operating expenditure, the most expensive of which would be its $18 GP visits for an extra 600,000 low-income households at $95 million a year, although boosting the number of elective surgeries to 200,000 a year is seen rising to an annual cost of $120 million over the four year horizon, Finance Minister Steven Joyce said in a statement.

If returned to office after the Sept. 23 vote, National's policy promises would cut the budgeted operating allowance for new spending by $15.38 billion over the four fiscal years, although the costings will be updated through the final fortnight of the campaign, Joyce said.

"We are therefore on track to stay well within the parameters of the pre-election update and reduce the government's net debt to $56 billion by 2022," Joyce said.

Joyce has toned down his attacks on the Labour Party's fiscal plan after his accusations of an $11.7 billion hole in the alternative accounts failed to gain traction. Instead, today he played up the lower debt track targeted by the incumbent administration and the tight budget constraints a Labour-led government would face on its numbers.

"Only the National Party has a fully costed sustainable fiscal plan that will keep New Zealand growing strongly and keep debt and interest rates under control," Joyce said.

The bickering over fiscal transparency isn't limited to the major parties, with NZ First leader Winston Peters taking a jab at Labour's tight spending programme and attracting a rebuke from the Greens' James Shaw over his own programme.

Last year, the Green Party proposed the establishment of a policy costings unit within the Treasury to strip out some of the partisan noise that accompanies electioneering and claimed the backing of the Labour Party at the time.

Joyce today said National's capital spending announced on the campaign trail has also been accounted for, falling under $3.9 billion of new capital spending that was unallocated at the time of the May budget, the National Land Transport Fund and public-private partnerships.

(BusinessDesk)