If Steven Joyce had simply noted that the Labour Party appears to have made so many specific policy promises that if they were to form the next government it would be very hard to deliver on those specific policy commitments, meet ongoing increases in the cost of normal government activities, and yet at the same time meet the specific spending, surplus, and debt numbers they’ve outlined in their fiscal plan, a useful and constructive exchange might well have followed. My summary stance: I think that looks like a reasonable conclusion. How much it matters probably depends largely on how much weight you put on the importance of those surplus and debt numbers.
I didn’t read the Labour fiscal plan when it was released. The specific policy promises had already been announced and in an MMP era, in particular, documents of this sort always seem like not much more than opening…
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