Finance Minister Nicola Willis said Taxpayers’ Union chair Ruth Richardson’s refusal to debate the government’s finances “tells the full story.”
Willis challenged the former National finance minister to a debate amid ongoing Taxpayers’ Union criticism of government spending.
Richardson initially agreed to the debate, but details proved hard to finalise, and she now seems to have ruled out a face-off.
In a statement after the government’s Half Year Economic and Fiscal Update (HYEFU), Richardson said she would not join “a circus or sideshow designed to distract from fiscal failure.”
For Richardson, it was clear Willis sought a distraction.
“The outlook delivered today is the worst in 30 years,” she said.
“It gets lost in the billions, but no one was expecting the books to be anywhere near this bad.”
Meanwhile, Willis responded to the statement, saying, “The taxpayer union’s had a lot of bark, but actually, given the opportunity to front up and run their arguments for how they’d do it better, they haven’t fronted.”
“And that, I think, tells you the full story, which is that our government is making difficult choices and is making the right choices.”